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The Senate passed three bills last week overturning established land-use plans in Montana, North Dakota, and Alaska under the Congressional Review Act (CRA), marking the first time the CRA has ever been applied to land management plans since its inception in 1996.
What the Senate failed to consider is the way these unprecedented bills could invalidate every resource management plan, including every oil, gas, and mineral lease issued under those plans.
Just as the Center for Western Priorities warned might happen, a draft lawsuit being circulated in Washington claims the federal government unlawfully issued thousands of permits in Wyoming because they aren't consistent with any valid resource management plan.
“Congress has now confirmed that each and every RMP in Wyoming—and many across the nation—is legally invalid because none of the RMPs were ever submitted to Congress under the Congressional Review Act (CRA),” reads the draft lawsuit. “This means that each and every oil, gas, and mineral lease, drilling permit, and other authorization issued pursuant to those RMPs is also invalid.”
In Wyoming alone, BLM field offices have issued 2,599 oil and gas leases on nearly 2.2 million acres since the CRA was signed into law.
What the shutdown means for public lands
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The national parks are effectively museums. This would be like the Smithsonian saying, ‘Well, you know, we don’t have the staff to keep the Smithsonian museum staffed, but we’ll go ahead and leave the gates, the doors open, and come in and take a look, do what you want.’ ”
