Interior Repeals 2024 BLM Conservation Rule

BILLINGS, Mont. The U.S. Interior Department is repealing a 2024 rule that placed conservation on equal footing with industrial activities on public lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management, clearing the way for expanded oil and gas drilling, logging, mining and grazing.

The rollback, detailed in documents released ahead of its publication Tuesday in the Federal Register, reverses a regulation finalized in April 2024 under President Joe Biden. That rule enabled the BLM to issue leases for ecosystem restoration and mitigation of environmental damage, similar to leases for extractive uses. No such conservation leases were awarded before the repeal.

The BLM oversees approximately 245 million acres, or about one-tenth of the nation's land surface, concentrated in Western states such as Alaska, California, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming. It also manages subsurface mineral resources, including coal and lithium, across more than 1 million square miles.

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum stated the Biden rule risked blocking access to hundreds of thousands of acres, limiting energy production, timber harvesting and grazing for ranchers. Industry groups and Republican lawmakers...