Pulse of the Land - 12/1/2025
A weekly brief for conservation and cleaner energy
This Week’s Take
Public lands had a split week: on one hand, national parks moved closer to “America-first country club” for foreign visitors, while Western senators and a bipartisan House caucus tried to nail down long-term protections and funding. Offshore, the federal energy brain is quietly rewiring itself back toward fossil fuels even as the data say solar and batteries can actually carry real load. The big throughline: policy coming out of Washington is making conservation and clean energy work harder for every win, but the numbers on the grid, show the clean side of the ledger is still very much alive.
The State of Public Lands and Energy Relationship
November 24 — Department of Energy reorganizes, downgrading clean-energy and grid offices.
The United States Department of Energy rolled out a reorganization that folds the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, the Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations, and the Grid Deployment Office into a new Office of Critical Minerals and Energy Innovation, removing the legacy clean-energy offices from the public org chart.
Why it matters: These offices helped drive down solar, wind, and battery costs and steered billions in demonstration and grid-upgrade projects; sidelining them tilts federal support back toward fossil fuels and makes it harder to build well-sited clean projects that can compete with new drilling, pipelines, and transmission lines pushing toward public lands.
November 25 — Wetlands protections narrowed as environmental agency sheds staff.
The United States Environmental Protection Agency proposed a new definition of “waters of the United States” that would remove many wetlands, ephemeral streams, and some permafrost wetlands from federal protection under the federal clean water law, just as roughly seventeen percent of the agency’s staff are leaving under a mass resignation program.
Why it matters: Weakening water protections while cutting staff makes it easier for energy, mining, and development projects to fill or pollute wetlands that feed rivers on and downstream of public lands, which hits wildlife habitat, tribal waters, and communities that depend on clean headwaters.
November 20–26 — Western senators demand emergency funding for wildfire recovery on federal lands.
A group of Western senators sent a letter urging appropriators to include wildfire recovery money for national parks, national forests, and Bureau of Land Management lands, following a season that burned over 150,000 acres across seven park units and nearly a million acres of Bureau land, including the loss of the historic Grand Canyon Lodge.
Why it matters: Post-fire budgets often dictate whether landscapes are restored with resilient habitat and community protection in mind or opened up for new roads, logging, and utility projects; this funding fight will shape whether charred public lands become stronger buffers against climate-driven fire or permanent sacrifice zones.
November 26 — Local officials keep up pressure to stop rollback of the Public Lands Rule.
Western local leaders and conservation groups used the end of the shutdown and the return of Congress to renew opposition to efforts to gut the Bureau of Land Management’s “Public Lands Rule,” which put conservation on more equal footing with extraction in agency planning.
Why it matters: Whether that rule stands or falls will decide if conservation leases and wildlife corridors get real weight in land-use plans, or if oil, gas, mining, and rights-of-way keep default priority, which is the quiet rules-level fight underneath every future drilling pad or transmission route.
Government Spotlight Public Lands
November 20–25 — Bipartisan Public Lands Caucus backs the Public Lands in Public Hands Act
Members of the bipartisan Public Lands Caucus formally endorsed the Public Lands in Public Hands Act, which would shore up transparency and limit large-scale sell-offs of federal land by requiring Congress to approve major disposal proposals and by strengthening public oversight.
Why it matters: In a week full of headlines about fees, rollbacks, and extraction, this bill is a reminder that there is cross-party appetite to keep public lands public — a crucial baseline if conservationists want to argue about how lands are used (habitat, recreation, clean energy) instead of whether they stay in public hands at all.
November 24 — Congress keeps key wildlife and forestry programs alive.
Lawmakers rejected proposed administration cuts to several conservation programs, restoring funding for the Renewable Resources Extension Act and keeping money flowing to land-grant universities for forestry and natural-resource outreach.
Why it matters: Keeping these obscure-sounding programs funded is what lets field foresters, biologists, and extension agents actually get out on farms and forests, which is where climate-smart forestry and habitat restoration happen long before any public-lands fight hits the headlines.
Clean Energy in the News
November 24–26 — New data confirm solar and batteries are pushing down gas on California’s grid.
Energy Information Administration data and follow-on analyses show California’s utility-scale solar generation has nearly doubled since 2020, while natural-gas generation has fallen roughly 17–18 percent, with batteries now delivering about 4.9 gigawatts during the critical 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. evening peak.
Why it matters: This is real-world proof that solar plus storage can handle peak demand, which strengthens arguments for building more projects on rooftops, parking lots, and disturbed land — and undercuts claims that the only way to keep the lights on is more gas peakers, lines, and substations carved across wild habitat.
November 24–28 — Hydrogen hubs and states push back on federal funding cuts
Researchers at the University of California and other hub partners continued legal and public efforts to restore more than a billion dollars in cancelled hydrogen funding, after the Department of Energy pulled support for multiple regional hubs earlier this fall.
Why it matters: If the federal government walks away from big, shared clean-energy bets midstream, it chills investment not just in hydrogen but in transmission, storage, and industrial projects that could move heavy industry off fossil fuels and reduce pressure for new extraction on public lands.
Thank you for reading! I highlight threats to public lands and the energy industry’s impact. I believe clean energy is the future, and ALL energy projects should prioritize private land first to keep wild places wild. When energy extraction is needed on public lands all projects must restore the land after extraction. Public lands are unique and once lost, they’re gone forever.