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On his first day as Secretary of the Interior, Doug Burgum issued six secretarial orders (SOs) focused on implementing President Donald Trump’s “energy dominance” agenda. While several of the orders are copies of President Trump’s day one executive orders, SO 3418 - Unleashing American Energy takes new aim at Western public lands, going even further than the Trump EOs.
In a new Westwise blog post, Center for Western Priorities Policy Director Rachael Hamby highlights a few of the less-obvious ways Burgum's SO puts drilling and mining above all else, including:
- Setting the stage for Trump to attempt to shrink or erase national monuments;
- Tossing out resource management plans, including pet targets such as the Rock Springs RMP in Wyoming;
- Erasing habitat protections to make room for mining in the name of national security;
- Clearing the way for mining companies to dump mining waste on public lands.
If brought to fruition, Burgum’s orders could completely upend public land management and cause irreparable harm to the West’s landscapes, wildlife habitats, climate, and communities. As overwhelming majorities of Westerners have known all along, what the Trump administration is proposing is a recipe for squandering America’s most precious asset: our iconic and priceless public lands protected for future generations. Learn more about the orders on CWP's Westwise blog.
In an energy-producing district, conservation is a winning issue
The Center for Western Priorities Winning the West report, released earlier this week, analyzed several key U.S. senate and congressional races in Western states and found that support for conservation gave candidates an edge in 2024. In New Mexico's 2nd Congressional District, Gabe Vasquez emphasized his track record on conservation, demonstrating that public lands advocacy can build a base of support across party lines. For more analysis of this and other races, visit the Winning the West website to see polling results and read the report.
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I hope that folks who oppose the monument will come to understand how broad the support is for national monuments like Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni and that we can move on to planning the monument management in a productive, meaningful way.”
