A powerful windstorm forced President Joe Biden to have to cancel an event where he planned to announce the protection of hundreds of thousands of acres of California lands from oil and gas drilling.
The sudden change came after Biden flew to the West Coast after visiting New Orleans to honor victims of the terror attack there, as he tries to pick up the pace as the door closes on his time in office.
Biden got into ‘the Beast,’ the presidential limo, late Tuesday morning, only to exit ten minutes later and enter his hotel amid the weather concerns.
At first, the White House announced that Biden wouldn’t travel to Thermal, California as planned due to ‘weather issues.’ Instead, Biden’s team planned to move the speech to Los Angeles, where the president spent the night.
Later, the White House announced that ‘today’s event will be rescheduled for next week at the White House so that key stakeholders can attend.’
It was just the latest of Biden’s efforts at the tail-end of his administration to use executive powers to try to establish a permanent legacy, or at least one that Donald Trump will have to fight to undo. On Monday, Biden signed an order to protect millions of acres of coastline from oil drilling and gas leases.
The actions have infuriated Trump, 78, who says they violate the promises of an orderly transition, and who is forging ahead with his own plans to try to buy Greenland, rename the Gulf of Mexico, reclaim the Panama Canal, and make Canada the 51st state using ‘economic force.’
The dangerous California winds threw off Biden’s plan to travel to the Eastern Coachella Valley, where he was to announce the creation of two new national monuments in California that will honor Native American tribes.
Firefighters work to put out a brush fire burning near homes in Pacific Palisades, California, on January 7, 2025. A dangerous windstorm forced Biden to cancel his event to announce the creation of a new national monument that would protect lands from oil and gas drilling
Winds began gaining strength across Southern California as forecasters warned of ‘life-threatening, destructive’ gusts.
The National Weather Service said it could be the strongest Santa Ana windstorm in more than a decade and it will peak in the early hours of Wednesday, when gusts could reach 80 miles per hour. Isolated gusts could top 100 mph (160 kph) in mountains and foothills.
Biden’s announcement was part of his administration’s effort to conserve at least 30% of U.S. lands and waters by 2030 through his ‘America the Beautiful’ initiative. But the cancellation of the trip was also a stark reminder of another administration priority: climate change and the increasing effects of extreme weather.
The proclamations name the Chuckwalla National Monument in Southern California near Joshua Tree National Park and the Sáttítla National Monument in Northern California. The declarations bar drilling and mining and other development on the 624,000-acre (2,400-square-kilometer) Chuckwalla site and roughly 225,000 acres (800 square kilometers) near the Oregon border in Northern California.
The new monuments protect clean water for communities, honor areas of cultural significance to tribal nations and Indigenous peoples, and enhance access to nature, the White House said.
President Joe Biden speaks during an interfaith prayer service for the victims of the deadly New Years truck attack, at St. Louis Cathedral in New Orleans, Monday, Jan. 6, 2025. He flew from New Orleans to the West Coast for the event
People watch as others drive out of harm’s way as the Palisades Fire burns amid a powerful windstorm on January 7, 2025 in Pacific Palisades, California
Production crews remove a sign after dangerously high winds forced President Joe Biden to cancel a trip Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025, to the Eastern Coachella Valley, Calif., where he was to announce the creation of the Chuckwalla National Monument, a new national monument in Southern California honoring Native American tribes
The initial plan was to switch the event to L.A. but that, too, got cancelled
Biden, who has two weeks left in office, announced Monday he will ban new offshore oil and gas drilling in most U.S. coastal waters, including in California and other West Coast states. The plan is intended to block possible efforts by the incoming Trump administration to expand offshore drilling.
The flurry of activity has been in line with the Democratic president´s ‘America the Beautiful’ initiative launched in 2021, aimed at honoring tribal heritage, meeting federal goals to conserve 30% of public lands and waters by 2030 and addressing climate change.
The Pit River Tribe has worked to get the federal government to designate the Sáttítla National Monument. The area is a spiritual center for the Pit River and Modoc Tribes and encompasses mountain woodlands and meadows that are home to rare flowers and wildlife.
A number of Native American tribes and environmental groups began pushing Biden to designate the Chuckwalla National Monument, named after the large desert lizard, in early 2023. The monument would protect public lands south of Joshua Tree National Park, spanning the Coachella Valley region in the west to near the Colorado River.
Advocates say the monument will protect a tribal cultural landscape, ensure access to nature for local residents and preserve military history sites.
‘The designation of the Chuckwalla and Sáttítla National Monuments in California marks an historic step toward protecting lands of profound cultural, ecological and historical significance for all Americans,’ said Carrie Besnette Hauser, president and CEO of the nonprofit Trust for Public Land.
The new monuments ‘honor the enduring stewardship of Tribal Nations and the tireless efforts of local communities and conservation advocates who fought to safeguard these irreplaceable landscapes for future generations,” Hauser said.
National monuments like Chuckwalla and Sáttítla play a key role in addressing historical injustices and ensuring a more inclusive telling of America´s history, she said.
Democratic Sen. Alex Padilla of California called the new monuments a major victory that will safeguard the state’s public lands for generations to come.
Designation of the Chuckwalla monument ‘accelerates our state´s crucial efforts to fight the climate crisis, protect our iconic wildlife, preserve sacred tribal sites and promote clean energy,’ Padilla said. The new Sáttítla monument, meanwhile, ensures that land that has ‘long served as the spiritual center for the Pit River and Modoc Nation’ will ‘endure for generations to come,’ Padilla said.
The Chuckwalla monument is intended to honor tribal sovereignty by including local tribes as co-stewards, following in the footsteps of a recent wave of monuments such as the Bears Ears National Monument in Utah, which is overseen in conjunction with five tribal nations.
‘The protection of the Chuckwalla National Monument brings the Quechan people an overwhelming sense of peace and joy,’ the Fort Yuma Quechan Tribe said in a statement. ‘Tribes being reunited as stewards of this landscape is only the beginning of much-needed healing and restoration, and we are eager to fully rebuild our relationship to this place.’
In May, the Biden administration expanded two national monuments in California – the San Gabriel Mountains in the south and Berryessa Snow Mountain in the north. In October, Biden designated the Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary along the coast of central California, which will include input from the local Chumash tribes in how the area is preserved.
Last year, the Yurok Tribe in Northern California also became the first Native people to manage tribal land with the National Park Service under a historic memorandum of understanding signed by the tribe, Redwood National and State Parks and the nonprofit Save the Redwoods League, which is conveying the land to the tribe.
