The Trump administration is scrapping a Biden-era public lands rule in a bid to ramp up American energy production.
The Interior Department is canceling the 2024 Bureau of Land Management (BLM) rule, which allowed public land to be leased for restoration. In a final rule published in the Federal Register, BLM said the 2024 rule “inappropriately elevated conservation as a discrete ‘use’ of the public lands” and created leasing mechanisms that “threatened to restrict productive use” of public lands, according to the Federal Register.
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum highlighted that the rule could limit access to land used by energy producers, timber companies and ranchers, in September.
The Department of the Interior did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
“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 with the Independent Petroleum Association of America said in a statement to The Associated Press.
Supporters of the Biden rule say conservation has been treated as secondary in federal land management and that the policy helped BLM meet its responsibility to protect land, water, and wildlife.
“[This] 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.” Bobby McEnaney of the Natural Resources Defense Council told the AP, criticizing the repeal.
The receding of the rule fits into President Donald Trump’s plan to expand access to taxpayer-owned public lands for energy production, such as fossil fuel production, mining, logging and grazing, while rolling back Biden-era restrictions.
This comes as Republicans in Congress moved to cancel Biden-era land management plans that restricted development in parts of Alaska, Montana and North Dakota in October.
The repeal is set to take effect 30 days after publication in the Federal Register.
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