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The Bureau of Land Management published the final version of its much-anticipated Conservation and Landscape Health rule (also known as the Public Lands Rule). The BLM oversees 245 million acres of federal public lands, mainly in the Western U.S., and for decades, the federal government has prioritized oil and gas drilling, hardrock mining and livestock grazing on these public lands.
“Today’s final rule helps restore balance to our public lands as we continue using the best-available science to restore habitats, guide strategic and responsible development, and sustain our public lands for generations to come,” Interior Secretary Deb Haaland said in a statement.
The rule formalizes the practice of “restoration leasing” and “mitigation leasing” for land restoration or protection, clearing a path for durable compensatory mitigation agreements with extractive industries as part of the permitting process. It also takes the concept of measuring landscape health, a process that currently only applies to grazing, and applies it to all BLM-managed lands, bringing consistency and the best science to land management practices across BLM.
“For too long, the BLM has allowed extractive industries to have their way with our public lands. That’s led to degraded landscapes across the West and the decline of iconic species, like the greater sage-grouse," said Center for Western Priorities Communications Manager Kate Groetzinger. “This rule gives the BLM the tools it needs to right these wrongs and start improving the health of our public lands. It also provides tools for extractive industries to be part of the solution, rather than exacerbate the problem."
At the end of the public comment period for the draft Public Lands Rule, 92 percent of the comments submitted encouraged BLM to adopt the rule largely as written or strengthen its conservation measures.
BLM protects Alaska, rejects mining road
Today the Bureau of Land Management released its final National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska (NPR-A) Rule, which updates regulations for the management and protection for over 13 million acres with globally-significant wildlife habitat and traditional subsistence resources that Indigenous communities rely on. Existing oil and gas operations in the region will not be affected, but future oil and gas development will only be allowed if it will have no or minimal adverse effect on resources and robust mitigation of impacts. Center for Western Priorities Policy Director Rachael Hamby said, “Prioritizing the protection of these irreplaceable resources where they are most concentrated is the highest and best use of those lands. Doubling down on oil and gas production in these areas, especially when we should be accelerating the transition to carbon-free energy, simply does not make sense."
The BLM also released the Final Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement for the Ambler Road Project, a 211-mile road which would have provided mining-related industrial access to the Ambler Mining District. The agency rejected the proposed road on the grounds that it would have fragmented important migratory habitat for the Western Arctic Caribou Herd, one of the largest remaining caribou herds, and crossed 11 major rivers and 3,000 streams, impacting water quality and important fish habitat. Hamby said, “The proposed industrial mining road would have fragmented one of the largest intact landscapes in the nation so that private companies could profit from minerals for which they would have paid no royalties. Fortunately, the BLM recognizes the importance of protecting this majestic landscape and the vital fish and wildlife habitat it contains.”
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Oil and gas advocacy groups will protest these reforms, but with this year’s record oil and gas profits taxpayers aren’t having it, and 91% of voters in Utah support requiring oil and gas companies to pay the full cost of clean-up.”
