A new Interior Department rule allowing conservation leases on public land “is flatly inconsistent” with federal land management laws, said a dozen farming, petroleum, mining, electric power, and timber groups in a lawsuit filed in U.S. district court in Wyoming. The lawsuit is one of the first to be filed against a federal regulation since the Supreme Court decision in late June that reduced the leeway given to agencies to interpret the law.
“With the rule, BLM [Bureau of Land Management] has converted a statute for managing the productive use of lands into one of non-use, prioritizing conservation values above, and to the exclusion of, the exclusively productive activities that FLPMA [Federal Land Policy Management Act of 1976] has governed for half a century,” said the lawsuit. Congress decides whether to set aside land in parks, wildlife refuges, and wilderness areas, while the BLM’s only job is to oversee “productive use of federal lands for everything from mining to livestock grazing, from energy development to siting electric power lines,” said the lawsuit.
The BLM updated its Public Land Rule on April 18 to give conservation, recreation, and renewable energy development equal weight with longtime uses such as livestock grazing, mining, and oil and gas drilling. “The rule recognizes conservation as an essential component of public lands management, on equal footing with other multiple uses of these lands,” says the BLM, pledging to balance the use of natural resources with protection of public lands and waters for the future. The rule allows groups to bid on so-called restoration and mitigation leases in order to restore or conserve federal land.
The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, one of the plaintiffs, said the BLM rule “only serves as a stepping stone to removing livestock grazing from our public lands” and creates “a brand new use for federal lands without congressional approval.”
“Through rules that are designed to open the door to de facto land withdrawals, this administration continues to erect new barriers to responsible domestic mining projects, threatening to deepen our already grave foreign mineral reliance and blocking access to valuable coal resources at the exact moment minerals and energy demands are exploding,” said the National Mining Association.
To read the lawsuit, click here.