BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — A senior official in President Joe Biden's administration who oversaw its contentious efforts to address climate change by curbing oil drilling and coal mining on federal lands while expanding renewable power was named Tuesday as the next president of a prominent environmental group.
U.S. Bureau of Land Management Director Tracy Stone-Manning will become president of The Wilderness Society effective next February, the Washington, D.C.-based group announced.
The land bureau shifted sharply away from fossil fuel extraction during her tenure, including two decisions released Tuesday that end new federal coal sales from the nation's most productive reserves of the fuel along the Wyoming-Montana border.
Stone-Manning's 2021 nomination by Biden was bitterly opposed by Republicans who labeled her an “eco-terrorist” over her past ties with environmental extremists. Senate Democrats pushed through her confirmation on a party-line vote.
The land bureau has jurisdiction over almost a quarter-billion acres (100 million hectares) of land, primarily in western states, that is used for oil exploration, mining, livestock grazing, recreation and other purposes.
Under Stone-Manning the bureau sharply reduced oil and gas lease sales and raised royalty rates that companies must pay to extract the fuel. It also issued a rule elevating the importance of conservation, by making it a “use” of public lands on par with drilling or grazing.
That marked a sharp departure from the land bureau's longstanding reputation for favoring commercial development over environmental preservation.
The moves drew pushback from the energy, mining and ranching industries and Republican in Congress. They have vowed to undo actions taken by Stone-Manning when the GOP assumes control in Washington next year as a result of its 2024 election wins.
Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon said the decision to end coal leasing in the Powder River Basin area of northeast Wyoming and southeast Montana would have devastating economic effects. The Republican accused the Biden administration of a “crusade” against coal and said he would work with his state's congressional delegation to reverse it.
“This is not a balanced resource management strategy, but an anti-fossil fuel, politically-motivated action taken before the door slams on this administration,” Gordon said in a statement.
The land bureau under Biden also approved new solar and wind power projects and opened more public lands to renewable energy development.
It is uncertain if the changes will last.
Rep. Raul Grijalva, a Democrat from Arizona, praised the work done by Stone-Manning on renewable energy, but added that it could be “completely undone” by the next administration.
“Whether it’s through rock-bottom royalty rates, rigged rulemaking, or stripped environmental protections, our public lands will soon be a profit playground for the rich,” said Grijalva, the ranking Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee.
President-elect Donald Trump has pledged to drop Biden’s climate and energy policies in a bid to increase oil and gas production that is already at record levels. He has nominated North Dakota Republican Gov. Doug Burgum to lead the Interior Department, which includes the Bureau of Land Management. Oil industry representatives and Republicans from energy states cheered Burgum’s nomination.
Before joining the administration, Stone-Manning worked as a senior aide to Montana Democrats U.S. Sen. Jon Tester and Gov. Steve Bullock. Her nomination by Biden sparked intense Republican opposition because of Stone-Manning's involvement in a 1989 environmental sabotage case.
As a 23-year-old graduate student at the University of Montana, Stone-Manning sent a letter to federal officials in 1989 saying spikes had been inserted into trees in an Idaho national forest, a tactic sometimes used to halt timber sales.
Two men were criminally charged, and Stone-Manning testified against them. She was given immunity and never charged with crimes, although an investigator later said she had stonewalled the probe.
After Tester and moderate Sen. Joe Manchin defended her, Stone-Manning was confirmed on a 50-45 vote.
The bureau's headquarters were relocated to Colorado under Trump and hundreds of employees resigned or retired before it was returned to Washington, D.C., under Biden.
Interior Secretary Deb Haaland's chief of staff, Rachael Taylor, said in a statement that Stone-Manning had reshaped the bureau after it was “damaged” by the relocation. Taylor said Stone-Manning also helped restore balance to public lands decisions and made sure Native American tribes have a role in managing their homelands.
Trump has not announced his nominee to lead the land bureau. During the Republican's first-term, it went without a Senate-confirmed director. Trump instead used acting directors who did not have to go before the Senate to advance his policies.
FILE - Tracy Stone-Manning listens during a confirmation hearing for her to be the director of the Bureau of Land Management, during a hearing of the Senate Energy and National Resources Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, June 8, 2021. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)
A ceasefire deal that could end more than a year of cross-border fighting between Israel and Lebanon's Hezbollah militant group won backing from Israeli leaders Tuesday, raising hopes and renewing difficult questions in a region gripped by conflict.
Hezbollah leaders also signaled tentative backing for the U.S.-brokered deal, which offers both sides an off-ramp from hostilities that have driven more than 1.2 million Lebanese and 50,000 Israelis from their homes.
An intense bombing campaign by Israel has killed more than 3,700 people, many of them civilians, Lebanese officials say. Over 130 people have been killed on the Israeli side.
But while the deal, set to take effect early Wednesday, could significantly calm the tensions that have inflamed the region, it does little directly to resolve the much deadlier war that has raged in Gaza since the Hamas attack on southern Israel in October 2023 that killed 1,200 people.
Hezbollah, which began firing scores of rockets into Israel the following day in support of Hamas, had previously said it would keep fighting until there was a stop to the fighting in Gaza. With the new cease-fire, it has backed away from that pledge, in effect leaving Hamas isolated and fighting a war alone.
Here’s what to know about the tentative ceasefire agreement and its potential implications:
The agreement reportedly calls for a 60-day halt in fighting that would see Israeli troops retreat to their side of the border while requiring Hezbollah to end its armed presence in a broad swath of southern Lebanon. President Joe Biden said Tuesday that the deal is set to take effect at 4 a.m. local time on Wednesday (9 p.m. EST Tuesday).
Under the deal, thousands of Lebanese troops and U.N. peacekeepers are to deploy to the region south of the Litani River. An international panel lead by the U.S. would monitor compliance by all sides. Biden said the deal “was designed to be a permanent cessation of hostilities.”
Israel has demanded the right to act should Hezbollah violate its obligations. Lebanese officials have rejected writing that into the proposal. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday that the military would strike Hezbollah if the U.N. peacekeeping force, known as UNIFIL, does not enforce the deal.
A Hezbollah leader said the group's support for the deal hinged on clarity that Israel would not renew its attacks.
“After reviewing the agreement signed by the enemy government, we will see if there is a match between what we stated and what was agreed upon by the Lebanese officials,” Mahmoud Qamati, deputy chair of Hezbollah’s political council, told the Qatari satellite news network Al Jazeera.
“We want an end to the aggression, of course, but not at the expense of the sovereignty of the state” of Lebanon, he said.
The European Union’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, said Tuesday that Israel’s security concerns had been addressed in the deal, also brokered by France. Hezbollah indicated it would give the ceasefire pact a chance.
After months of cross-border bombings, Israel can claim major victories, including the killing of Hezbollah’s top leader, Hassan Nasrallah, most of his senior commanders and the destruction of extensive militant infrastructure.
A complex attack in September involving the explosion of hundreds of walkie-talkies and pagers used by Hezbollah was widely attributed to Israel, signaling a remarkable penetration of the militant group.
The damage inflicted on Hezbollah has come not only in its ranks, but to the reputation it built by fighting Israel to a stalemate in the 2006 war. Still, its fighters managed to put up heavy resistance on the ground, slowing Israel’s advance while continuing to fire scores of rockets, missiles and drones across the border each day.
The ceasefire offers relief to both sides, giving Israel’s overstretched army a break and allowing Hezbollah leaders to tout the group’s effectiveness in holding their ground despite Israel’s massive advantage in weaponry. But the group is likely to face a reckoning, with many Lebanese accusing it of tying their country’s fate to Gaza’s at the service of key ally Iran, inflicting great damage on a Lebanese economy that was already in grave condition.
Until now, Hezbollah has insisted that it would only halt its attacks on Israel when it agreed to stop fighting in Gaza. Some in the region are likely to view a deal between the Lebanon-based group and Israel as a capitulation.
In Gaza, where officials say the war has killed more than 44,000 Palestinians, Israel’s attacks have inflicted a heavy toll on Hamas, including the killing of the group’s top leaders. But Hamas fighters continue to hold scores of Israeli hostages, giving the militant group a bargaining chip if indirect ceasefire negotiations resume.
Hamas is likely to continue to demand a lasting truce and a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza in any such deal, while Netanyahu on Tuesday reiterated his pledge to continue the war until Hamas is destroyed and all hostages are freed.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, whose forces were ousted from Gaza by Hamas in 2007 and who hopes to one day rule over the territory again as part of an independent Palestinian state, offered a pointed reminder Tuesday of the intractability of the war, demanding urgent international intervention.
“The only way to halt the dangerous escalation we are witnessing in the region, and maintain regional and international stability, security and peace, is to resolve the question of Palestine,” he said in a speech to the U.N. read by his ambassador.
People take shelter in a metro station as a siren sounds a warning of incoming rockets from Lebanon in Haifa, Tuesday, Nov. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
People take shelter in a metro station as a siren sounds a warning of incoming rockets from Lebanon in Haifa, Tuesday, Nov. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
In this screen grab image from video provide by the Israeli Government Press Office, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu makes a televised statement Tuesday, Nov. 26, 2024, in Jerusalem, Israel. (Israeli Government Press Office via AP)
Rescuers use an excavator as they search for victims at the site of an Israeli airstrike that hit a building in Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, Nov. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
Rescuers use an excavator as they search for victims at the site of an Israeli airstrike that hit a building in Beirut, Tuesday, Nov. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
