The Trump administration proposed Wednesday to place the Bureau of Land Management’s public lands rule on the chopping block.
The Interior Department is moving to revoke the Biden-era public lands rule, saying an in-depth analysis concluded it violates federal law and oversteps the bureau’s statutory authority.
The move to kill the conservation and landscape health rule — known informally as the public lands rule — comes after more than two years of sometimes fierce debate over whether it blocked mining, energy development and other activities, or provided BLM with a much-needed tool to protect rangelands against the threats of a warming climate.
“The previous administration’s Public Lands Rule had the potential to block access to hundreds of thousands of acres of multiple-use land — preventing energy and mineral production, timber management, grazing and recreation across the West,” Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said in a statement.
Interior’s publication of the proposed rule rescinding the public lands rule in Thursday’s Federal Register will kick off a 60-day public comment period running through Nov. 10.
