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The House of Representatives is scheduled to consider several bills this week that would prevent the protection of public lands and undermine progress on oil and gas reform. These bills are out of touch with the interests of Western voters, who year after year say they support protecting public lands as national monuments and other protected areas and prioritize conservation on public lands over the development of oil and gas and other economic uses of the land. In 2024, 85 percent of Western voters said issues involving clean water, clean air, wildlife, and public lands are important in deciding whether to support an elected official.
Despite this, the House Natural Resources Federal Lands Subcommittee is scheduled to mark up the Congressional Oversight of the Antiquities Act, which would eliminate the President's authority under the Antiquities Act to create new national monuments by requiring congressional approval for national monument declarations. Another bill scheduled for markup would block the Bureau of Land Management from planning the future of public lands in Wyoming, and another aims to keep Colorado lands with low potential for oil and gas open to drilling. A fourth bill would preemptively ban free-market climate and conservation investment on private or public lands in Utah.
The House will also vote this week on a collection of bills that would undo the progress made by the Biden administration on energy and oil and gas reform. The Restoring American Energy Dominance Act, sponsored by Colorado Representative Lauren Boebert, would prevent the Bureau of Land Management from finalizing long-overdue updates to the federal oil and gas leasing program. A 2023 analysis by the Center for Western Priorities showed that 99 percent of commenters support the proposed reforms, and earlier this week over 100 Colorado elected officials sent a letter opposing Representative Boebert's bill. Other legislation up for consideration includes a resolution broadly targeting the Biden administration's energy and climate policies and a bill that would make it easier for polluters to contaminate water supplies with harmful chemicals.
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We’re basically driving in the dark to a destination that we don’t know anything about because of climate change and the changing fire regime.”
