Interior Department: No Money for Parks, Plenty for Offshore Drilling
The Hill reports the Interior Department is rolling out $100 non-resident fees for national parks in 2026, framed as a way to bolster maintenance and operations. (Apparently, the trillions in taxpayer dollars are otherwise engaged). This comes after the same department, under the very same administration, recently approved the Willow oil drilling project in Alaska, a massive fossil fuel endeavor
expected to unleash 239 million metric tons of carbon emissions. The juxtaposition raises questions about resource allocation priorities: parks for the people demand upfront payment, while climate-destroying corporations get the green light. So, you'll be paying more to walk through a national park, experiencing the very nature that the Interior Department simultaneously permits to be further
despoiled by its other decisions. Imagine the sheer audacity: taxing citizens for access to their own natural heritage, while handing over public lands to corporate interests for profit. That's some fiscal responsibility, ensuring the public pays twofold: once for access, and again for environmental cleanup.