Trump officials cancel rule that made conservation a ‘use’ of public lands | Trump administration
As Donald Trump’s administration eases restrictions on industries and seeks to increase drilling, logging, mining and grazing on taxpayer-owned land, the interior department is rescinding a rule that puts conservation on equal footing with development.
The 2024 rule, adopted under former President Joe Biden, aimed to refocus the interior department’s Bureau of Land Management, which oversees about 10% of land in the United States. Just as oil companies lease land for drilling, public property was allowed to be leased for restoration.
But Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said the rule could block access to hundreds of thousands of acres (hectares) of land, hinder energy and timber production and harm farmers grazing on public lands.
Supporters argued that conservation has long been an afterthought at the land bureau, neglecting its mission under the Federal Land Policy Administration Act of 1976. While the bureau has previously issued conservation leases in limited situations, it had never had a dedicated program before the Biden administration.
Repealing the rule “means less protection for clean drinking water, less protection for endangered wildlife that depends on healthy habitats, and less liability when companies leave those lands damaged and degraded,” said Bobby McEnaney of the Natural Resources Defense Council.
That exceeded the land bureau’s authority to allow outside parties to obtain conservation leases, administration officials said in documents released Monday.
Industry groups and their Republican allies in Congress strongly opposed the rule and lobbied for its repeal. They said the Biden administration’s change violated the “multiple use” mandate for interior department lands by foregrounding “no use” of federal lands (i.e., restoration leases).
“This action provides greater clarity and predictability for independent oil and gas producers, many of whom rely on consistent permitting and leasing processes to operate efficiently and invest in domestic energy supply,” Dan Naatz of the Independent Petroleum Association of America said in a statement.
The federal government’s large tracts of land are concentrated in western states such as Alaska, California, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming. Since taking office, Trump has taken a series of actions aimed at increasing fossil fuel production from these taxpayer-owned fields. The Republican administration has also tried to scrap some renewable energy projects, claiming they were unfairly funded under Biden.
The revocation will be effective 30 days after publication in the Federal Register, scheduled for Tuesday.
This comes after Republicans in Congress in recent months rescinded land management plans adopted in the closing days of the Biden administration that restricted development in large swaths of Alaska, Montana and North Dakota.
In addition to surface land assets, the Bureau of Land Management regulates more than 1 million square miles (2.5 million square kilometers) of publicly owned underground mineral reserves, such as coal for power plants and lithium for renewable energy. The bureau has a history of industry-friendly policies and has been selling grazing permits and issuing oil and gas leases for more than a century.
