Trump Keeps Oil Permits Moving in Shutdown, Halts Renewables (1)

The Trump administration plans to continue issuing permits for oil drilling and do other work on “priority conventional energy projects” during the government shutdown but will freeze activities on some renewable energy projects.

The Interior Department, which oversees energy development on federal lands and waters, is furloughing thousands of workers but will keep processing permits for new oil and gas projects, coal leases and other energy work, according to its shutdown plan. The department’s Bureau of Land Management, which oversees about 245 million acres of public land, said staffers handling those issues are exempt from furloughs in part to ...