非營利組織「西部優先中心（Center for Western Priorities）」發現，過去一個月，美國人忙著與新冠病毒作戰，川普的內政部一邊悄悄影響環境相關政策制定。自川普簽署第一份緊急新冠病毒法案後一個月，內政部啟動數十項與武漢肺炎（COVID-19）無關的政策行動，取消瀕危野生動植物保護法令，並在全國各地擴大辦理採礦和油氣租約銷售。
西部優先中心列出3月6日川普簽署首份新冠病毒緊急法案後，內政部採取的57項行動，像是34個民意徵詢期被啟動或結束，儘管地方民代和國會多次要求內政部長大衛．伯恩哈特（David Bernhardt）在疫情期間暫停立法程序。
「美國忙著應付全球性傳染病，但伯恩哈特可沒有忘記油氣和採礦公司付了他多年薪水、交付給他的使命。」西部優先中心執行董事羅卡拉（Jennifer Rokala）說，「看看他在新冠病毒危機惡化時做的事，他拒絕關閉國家公園、無視這對國家公園管理員帶來的危險，也是不意外。」
3月6日以來，美國內政部已完成至少九項對公共和部落土地有永久性影響的行動，包括擴大亞利桑那州和內華達州的硬岩採礦業務，以及撤回麻薩諸塞州Mashpee Wampanoag部落的信託土地。
Mashpee Wampanoag部落在該地區生活超過1萬2000年。由於內政部下印地安事務局的決策，該部落很可能會失去僅存的家園。這個決策嚴重打擊部落主權，影響部落未來和永續性。該部落正在要求國會保護其保留土地，並提出《馬什皮．旺帕諾格部落保留法案》（H.R.312）。
美國內政部還針對《瀕危物種法》，提出削弱弓背鮭（Gila cypha）和波多黎各蘭花保育工作的政策，並取消了北美松雞（Centrocercus urophasianus）保育提案。
儘管石油生產過剩導致全球石油價格暴跌，但美國內政部3月份仍舉行了七次油氣租約銷售。
儘管疫情導致煤炭暫停生產、礦場關閉，煤炭需求也大減，美國內政部仍宣布4月將在科羅拉多州舉行煤炭租約銷售活動。
3月27日，內政部核准在阿拉斯加修建一條會穿過北極門國家公園保護區的私人採礦道路。伯恩哈特之前任職的法律事務所，正是該道路所屬加拿大礦業公司Trilogy Metals的遊說代表。
此外，伯恩哈特還拒絕展延第一份新冠病毒法案簽署前，才剛剛開啟的幾個重要民意徵詢期，其中有爭議性的計畫，核准在新墨西哥州查科文化國家歷史公園附近的鑽探活動。新墨西哥州國會代表團和自然保護組織已呼籲伯恩哈特延長民意徵詢期。
內政部土地管理局（Bureau of Land Management）僅在4月6日展延了一個民意徵詢期，讓公眾可以在5月21日之前對影響整個西部北美松雞棲地的六份環境影響聲明草案發表評論。
除了內政部的57項行動之外，美國行政管理和預算局（Office of Management and Budget, OBM）還繼續與油氣公司舉行會議，討論內政部未來的法規制定問題。
3月18日，OMB和內政部官員會見了殼牌、埃克森美孚、康菲石油公司和美國石油學會代表，討論油氣和煤炭公司支付納稅人特許權使用費時，如何對鑽取自公有土地上的產品估價。
川普政府於2017年試圖廢除歐巴馬時代訂定的法規。該法規關閉了一個漏洞，不再讓企業以低於市價的價格賣煤炭給自己。最後因法院阻止而沒有廢除成功。
As America fought the new coronavirus over the past 30 days, President Donald Trump’s Interior Department rushed through dozens of attacks on the environment, finds a new analysis by the nonprofit Center for Western Priorities. In the month since Trump signed the first emergency coronavirus bill, the Interior Department has taken dozens of policy actions unrelated to COVID-19, removing protections for endangered wildlife, plus expanding mining operations and oil and gas leasing on public lands across the country.
The Center for Western Priorities’ analysis identified 57 separate actions taken by Interior Department agencies since March 6, when President Trump signed the first coronavirus emergency bill.
Those actions include 34 public comment periods that were opened or closed by the Interior Department despite numerous requests from local elected officials and members of Congress that Interior Secretary David Bernhardt suspend rulemakings during the coronavirus pandemic.
“While the country was focused on slowing a global pandemic, Secretary Bernhardt did not lose sight of his singular mission to deliver favors for the oil, gas, and mining companies that paid his salary for years,” commented Jennifer Rokala, executive director at the Center for Western Priorities.
“When you look at the audacious scope of what he was doing as the coronavirus crisis accelerated, it’s no wonder he was so blind to the risk that he created for America’s park rangers by refusing to close park gates,” Rokala said.
Since March 6, Interior has finalized at least nine actions that will have lasting effects on public and tribal lands, including expansions of hardrock mining operations in Arizona and Nevada, and the revocation of tribal trust lands from the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe in Massachusetts.
The Mashpee Wampanoag have occupied the same region for over 12,000 years. The very tribe that welcomed the Pilgrims in the 1600s is at risk of losing what is left of their homelands due to a determination made by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, a part of the Interior Department.
The decision is a blow to tribal sovereignty and undermines the future and sustainability of the tribal nation. In response, the tribe is asking Congress to protect its reservation lands and has proposed the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe Reservation Reaffirmation Act (H.R.312).
The Department of the Interior also continued its efforts to undermine the Endangered Species Act, advancing policies that would reduce protections for the humpback chub fish and a Puerto Rican orchid, and eliminating a proposal that would have established protections for the sage-grouse.
In March, the Interior Department held seven oil and gas lease sales, despite a glut of oil production leading to the collapse of global oil prices.
Interior also announced an April coal lease sale in Colorado despite falling coal production and mine closures due to the risk of COVID-19, the dearly respiratory disease caused by the novel coronavirus, as well as low demand for coal.
On March 27, the agency paved the way for a private mining road to be built through Gates of the Arctic National Preserve in Alaska.
Secretary Bernhardt’s former lobbying and law firm, Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, has lobbied the Interior Department to approve the project on behalf of the Canadian mining corporation Trilogy Metals, based in Vancouver.
In addition to the 32 public comment periods opened or closed since March 6, Secretary Bernhardt has refused to extend several key comment periods that opened just prior to the president’s signature on the first coronavirus bill. This includes the controversial plan to allow additional drilling near New Mexico’s Chaco Culture National Historic Park.
New Mexico’s congressional delegation and conservation groups have urged Bernhardt to extend the window for public comment, which opened on February 28th.
The Bureau of Land Management did extend one comment period on April 6, giving the public until May 21 to comment on six draft environmental impact statements that affect sage-grouse habitat across the West.
In addition to the 57 actions taken by the Interior Department, the White House Office of Management and Budget, OMB, also continued to hold meetings with oil and gas companies regarding future rulemakings by the Interior Department.
On March 18, OMB and Interior officials met with representatives of Shell, ExxonMobil, ConocoPhillips, and the American Petroleum Institute regarding a proposed rule on how oil, gas, and coal companies are allowed to value products extracted from public land when paying royalties to taxpayers.
The Trump administration in 2017 attempted to repeal an Obama-era rule that closed a loophole allowing companies to essentially sell coal to themselves at below-market prices, but that repeal was blocked by the courts.
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