Every year at the end of August nearly 70,000 people descend on Black Rock Desert in Pershing County, Nevada to take part in the celebration of radical self expression known as Burning Man. And for many people it’s synonymous with drug use and burning a giant wooden man in the middle of the desert. But according to the Bureau of Land Management — which has jurisdiction over government land and the Burning Man festival grounds in particular — the number of people cited or arrested is quite low for its size and duration. In 2013 only 6 people out of…
Browsing: Bureau of Land Management
The Bureau of Land Management spends between $20.8 million and $33.3 million on computers for its employees. By replacing computers with Apple iPads, the bureau expects it would have to spend far less — between $8 million and $12 million, according to internal documents obtained by the website governmentattic.org. The documents were obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request. It isn’t clear if the bureau’s current hardware costs are annual or over its five year technology refresh period, when it periodically replaces technology. Transitioning to the iPad would require “very little maintenance” over its lifespan, the bureau said. Currently,…
The Interior Department announced today that more than 190 million acres of federal land are now open for geothermal energy projects. Last month, you’ll remember, Congress declined to renew the ban on oil shale development before it adjourned. And the lapsed ban on offshore drilling means a huge swath of land is now open for leasing. All this adds up to a massive expansion of responsibilities at a few federal agencies — including one that doesn’t have a stellar track record: the Interior Department’s Minerals Management Service, lambasted by the department’s IG last month for a “pervasive culture of exclusivity”…