The U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) is canceling a Biden administration rule that sought to place public land conservation prioritization on par with oil drilling, grazing, and other extractive industries on vast government-owned properties.
The rescission comes as the Trump administration pulls back restrictions on these industries in efforts to promote domestic drilling, logging, mining, and grazing.
According to The Associated Press (AP), the 2024 Biden administration rule was meant to reshape the DOI’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) by allowing public property to be leased for restorative initiatives in the same manner that oil companies lease land for drilling.
The BLM oversees roughly 10% of U.S. national land.
DOI Secretary Doug Burgum reportedly said the regulation could hinder energy and timber production by blocking hundreds of thousands of acres (hectares) of public land.
Natural Resources Defense Council director Bobby McEnaney stated that repealing the regulation “means less protection for the clean drinking water, less protection for endangered wildlife that depend on healthy habitat, and less accountability when corporations leave these landscapes damaged and degraded.”
According to recently released documents, administration officials argued that the conservation rule was beyond the bureau’s authority.
Industry lobbyists and their Congressional Republican allies fought against the policy, arguing that former President Joe Biden violated the “multiple-use” directive for DOI lands by placing the “non-use” of federal lands into a prominent position.
“This action provides greater clarity and predictability for independent oil and natural gas producers—many of whom rely on consistent permitting and leasing processes to operate efficiently and invest in domestic energy supply,” Dan Naatz, executive vice president and chief policy officer of the Independent Petroleum Association of America, said in a statement, praising Secretary Burgum’s decision.
The U.S. government’s national lands are mainly in Western states, including Alaska, California, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming.
The BLM also regulates more than 1 million square miles of publicly owned land containing underground mineral reserves, such as coal and lithium.
