Govt Shut Down, But BLM Busy Issuing Drilling Permits, While Some EPA Staff Work To Cut Mercury Rules
The government shutdown isn’t stopping the Trump administration from advancing its policy priorities, especially when it comes to fossil fuels. When it announced its contingency plans for the shutdown, the Bureau of Land Management said staff members in charge of processing leases and permits for oil and gas, leases for coal or “other energy and mineral resources necessary for energy production” would still have to work.
Since that time, it has continued to approve drilling permits. Between Oct. 1 and Wednesday, the bureau approved 474 permits to drill on public lands. That figure is fairly in line with previous months when the government was open, with 494 permits approved in August and 505 in September.
Interior Secretary Burgum said during a recent event that the administration is scrounging up funding wherever it can to pay people for activities such as approving permits. “Whether it’s a an entrance fee at a park, I’ve got nobody out there to collect that, whether it’s getting permits done, we’re grabbing any cash that was laying in any drawer to try to pay those essential people, including the people that can do the permitting, so that we can keep going,” Burgum said last week during an event at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies .
Ed. - Emphasis added. Also, insert projectile vomiting noise here.
EDIT
The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s plan, meanwhile, states that it will have employees available “to work on priority conventional energy projects.” The term “conventional energy” typically refers to fossil fuels. These priority projects include preparing the administration’s plan for offshore drilling for the years ahead, as well as “preparation for the anticipated calendar year 2026 offshore critical mineral lease sales and oil and gas development plans.”
EDIT
https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/5580034-trump-fossil-fuel-permits-government-shutdown/