The Federal government will give tribal governments $120 million to address the impacts of climate change, the Department of the Interior announced Thursday. Indigenous peoples across what is now the United States are among the most harmed by climate change, compounding centuries of ethnic cleansing and myriad injustices. Worldwide, Indigenous groups represent just 5% of the population and safeguard 80% of the planet’s biodiversity and the U.S. and state governments are increasingly using traditional knowledge to ameliorate the damage caused by climate change.
Also Thursday, the Bureau of Land Management, a division of DOI, proposed limiting oil and gas extraction, mining, livestock grazing, and other operations in 67 million across the West to protect the greater sage grouse. The fossil fuel industry is expected to fight the proposal.
The DOI announcements came one day after the Energy Department said it plans to issue an up-to $72.8 million loan guarantee to help finance solar generation and battery storage systems on the lands of the Viejas Band of Kumeyaay Indians near what is now Alpine, California. The loan guarantee is the first such commitment under the DOE’s Loan Programs Office tribal energy financing program, the budget for which was increased by an order of magnitude to $20 billion by the Inflation Reduction Act. (Tribal funds: AP, Tribal Business News, E&E $, The Hill, Red Lake Nation News, HuffPost; Sage grouse: Washington Post $, E&E $, New York Times $, The Hill; Loan guarantee: E&E $)