CEQ Chair Brenda Mallory Highlights Biden-Harris Administration’s Conservation, Environmental Justice Investments during New Mexico Visit
Today, White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) Chair Brenda Mallory wrapped up a three-day visit to New Mexico, where she highlighted historic investments from President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to advance environmental justice, tackle the climate crisis, and support conservation and restoration efforts across public, private, and Tribal lands and waters.
On Wednesday, Chair Mallory was in Albuquerque, where she met with the All Pueblo Council of Governors (APCG), who collectively represent the 20 Pueblos of New Mexico and Texas, to discuss the importance of preserving the sacred landscape and unique cultural resources in the Greater Chaco region. She emphasized the Biden-Harris Administration’s commitment to elevating Indigenous Knowledge in Federal scientific and policy processes to help find solutions to address the climate crisis.
On Thursday, Chair Mallory was joined by environmental justice advocates, state officials, youth corps representatives, and Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) staff, to tour the Valle De Oro National Wildlife Refuge (NWR), one of FWS’s 101 Urban Wildlife Refuges that expand access to greenspace, education, and outdoor recreation for Americans living in and around cities. During the visit, Chair Mallory heard from NWR staff and partners about ongoing environmental justice work, including current efforts to implement their Environmental and Economic Justice Strategic Plan. She discussed steps the administration is taking through the America the Beautiful initiative to improve access to nature and the importance of locally-led, community driven conservation efforts, like that at Valle de Oro, where people are being connected with the outdoors in economically underserved communities.
Later, Chair Mallory was the keynote speaker at the Conservation Lands Foundation 2022 Friends Summit. In her remarks, Chair Mallory highlighted the President’s America the Beautiful initiative, an ambitious vision for how the United States can work collaboratively through locally led efforts to achieve a national conservation goal of conserving 30 percent of our lands and waters by 2030. The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation recently announced the release of the 2022 Request for Proposals for the Biden-Harris Administration’s America the Beautiful Challenge, which leverages Federal conservation and restoration investments with private and philanthropic contributions to accelerate land, water, and wildlife conservation efforts across the country.
On Friday, Chair Mallory visited the Kirtland Air Force Base for a tour of Sandia National Laboratories’ (SNL) Distributed Energy Technologies Laboratory and a demonstration of Sandia-Emera Technologies’ Direct Current microgrid project. While there, she heard from SNL scientists about their efforts to meet the goals of the Biden-Harris administration’s Federal Sustainability Plan, which the President announced in December along with his Executive Order on Catalyzing America’s Clean Energy Economy Through Federal Sustainability.
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