Jewell orders evaluation of mitigation

Interior Secretary Sally Jewell has told her department’s Energy and Climate Change Task Force to review the department’s practices and policies for the mitigation of the environmental impacts of development projects on federal land. On Oct. 31 Jewell issued a secretarial order requiring the task force to report its findings, including a draft strategy and schedule for developing any regulatory changes and new policies, within 90 days of issue of the order.

The deputy secretary of the Department of Interior will chair the task force.

“This order will help Interior create a simpler, more straightforward approach for businesses to be good partners and good stewards of our public lands,” Jewell said when announcing her new initiative. “Today we have an unprecedented opportunity — using science and technology to create a better understanding of landscapes than ever before — to advance important conservation goals and achieve our development objectives. We know it doesn’t have to be an either-or.”

In her order Jewell says that she wants Interior to use “landscape-level planning, banking, in-lieu fee arrangements or other possible measures” to offset the environmental impacts of all types of large development project. Landscape-level planning may include the development of regional mitigation plans encompassing multiple resources such as biological, ecological, cultural and scenic resources, and socio-economic factors, the order says. “Banking” refers to the offsetting of an environmental impact by some equivalent environmental restoration.

“The use of such plans should promote permit efficiencies and financial predictability for developers and also enhance the ability of federal and state agencies to invest in larger-scale conservation efforts,” the order said.

The idea is to ensure an approach that identifies key conservation priorities in a region; integrates mitigation considerations at an early stage of project planning; ensures the durability of mitigation measures; ensures transparency and consistency; and improves the resilience of U.S. resources in the face of climate change, the order says.

—Alan Bailey