On Tuesday, Accountable.US’s Western Values Project director Jayson O’Neill joined the This Green Earth syndicated broadcast to discuss the latest ruling by a district judge on the commonsense Methane Waste Prevention Rule. Under the corporate activist judge’s ruling, methane natural gas — one of the most destructive greenhouse gases that is 86 times more powerful than carbon dioxide over a 20-year period — is again unregulated and being wastefully flared and vented by oil and gas corporations with impunity.  

In a breaking story today, the HuffPost released a wish list a Big Oil lobby group had sent to Trump’s Interior Department. The American Petroleum Institute (API) sent a letter to the Department of the Interior (DOI) Secretary Bernhardt asking for taxpayer-backed bailouts and a smorgasbord of other requests.

Late last Friday, a district judge ruled William Perry Pendley’s decisions as acting Bureau of Land Management director in Montana were invalid. Pendley has served unlawfully as the acting BLM director for 424 days despite him and the rest of the Department of Interior knowing his succession was illegal. In response to this ruling, Western Values Project Director Jayson O’Neill issued the following statement: 

The HuffPost exposed the twisted and warped annotated version of the pocket Constitution Utah Senator Mike Lee held up in the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing during the first day of Amy Coney Barrett’s Supreme Court hearing yesterday. Astoundingly, it’s not America’s Constitution, it is an annotated version used by anti-American domestic terrorist militia groups known as the Skousen Constitution. More troubling may be the fact that Trump’s Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett didn’t bat an eye in the hearing, and she had referenced this extremist version of the Constitution in a previous speech. 

CNN is reporting today that Trump has rejected California’s request for disaster relief funds following the record-breaking destructive wildfires. Western Values Project’s research has found that President Trump has repeatedly cut federal funding dedicated to preventing and mitigating the spread of wildfires. 

The report shows that Trump has often rebuked experts within his administration and withheld funding for political reasons. And he’s blamed state officials in an attempt to shirk responsibility – even though most of the fires are occurring on federal lands – all while padding the pockets of logging companies.  

Today, Western Values Project Director Jayson O’Neill testified before the House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources’ virtual hearing: Interior’s Royalty Cuts: Thoughtful Policy or Industry Giveaway? The hearing focused on the public costs and lack of public benefits of the royalty cuts the Trump administration has offered oil and gas drillers operating on public lands during the coronavirus pandemic 

Today, the Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources is holding a virtual hearing: Interior’s Royalty Cuts: Thoughtful Policy or Industry Giveaway? The hearing will focus on the public costs and lack of public benefits of the royalty cuts the Trump administration has offered oil and gas drillers operating on public lands during the coronavirus pandemic. Western Values Project published a detailed report on the program prior to the hearing. 

Last year, the top three Alaska Native Corporations (ANC) — two of which are either a former employer or a current client of the Sweeneys — have gross revenues in the billions. In just the past year, Arctic Slope Regional Corporation took in $3.7 billion in gross revenues, Bristol Bay Regional Corporation grossed $1.7 billion, and NANA took in $1.6 billion according to new reporting by Indian News Today. 

Many of the same ANCs that the Trump administration tried to deem eligible for tribal nation government funds received Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) funding.  

The Bureau of Land Management has once again provided a bailout to a Big Oil corporation in deep financial trouble. Reporting in the Buffalo Bulletin, based in part on Western Values Project’s research, found that the bureau awarded US Realm Powder River a staggering 96% discount on 23 federal leases in Wyoming despite owing some $4 million in unpaid federal royalties and failing to pay local taxes for the last three years.  

As wildfires have raged across Western states in recent weeks amidst another record-breaking wildfire season that is destroying lives and communities, new research released by Western Values Project finds President Trump has repeatedly cut federal funding dedicated to preventing and mitigating the spread of wildfires. He has often rebuked experts within his administration and withheld funding for political reasons. And Trump blamed state officials to try to shirk responsibility – even though most of the fires are occurring on federal lands – while padding the pockets of logging companies.