The Interior Department is scrapping a conservation rule that gave environmental restoration equal standing with commercial development on federal property, clearing the way for expanded drilling, logging, mining and grazing operations across taxpayer-owned land.
The rule, adopted by the Biden administration in 2024, had created a pathway for conservation groups and land trusts to lease public acreage for restoration projects using the same legal framework that oil companies use to secure drilling rights. The Bureau of Land Management, which oversees roughly 10 percent of all U.S. land, had never operated such a dedicated conservation leasing program before.
Interior Secretary Doug Burgess argued the rule created barriers to resource extraction and threatened ranching operations that depend on federal grazing permits. Documents released Monday by Trump administration officials contended the leasing authority exceeded the agency's legal powers and fundamentally altered its mandate.
The conservation community sees the repeal as a significant rollback. Bobby McEnaney of the Natural Resources Defense Council said removing the rule "means less protection for the clean drinking water, less protection for endangered wildlife that depend on healthy habitat, and less accountability when corporations leave these landscapes damaged and degraded."
Industry groups had aggressively lobbied against the Biden-era rule, claiming it violated the "multiple use" principle that has governed public land management since 1976. They framed conservation leases as a "non-use" that gave restoration projects inappropriate priority over energy and timber production. The Independent Petroleum Association of America welcomed the repeal, saying it would provide "greater clarity and predictability" for oil and gas operators dependent on consistent federal leasing schedules.
The move fits a broader Trump administration push to accelerate fossil fuel development on federal property. The vast majority of federal land is concentrated in western states including Alaska, Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, and New Mexico. Since returning to office, Trump has issued numerous directives aimed at streamlining energy production from these public holdings while blocking certain renewable energy projects on grounds they received unfair subsidies under Biden.
The Bureau of Land Management oversees more than one million square miles of underground mineral reserves, including coal, oil, natural gas and lithium deposits. The agency has historically favored industry and has spent over a century issuing grazing permits and energy leases at relatively accessible terms.
The cancellation takes effect 30 days after publication in the Federal Register, which occurred Tuesday. The action follows Republican efforts in Congress to cancel land management plans from the final days of the Biden presidency that had restricted development across large swaths of Alaska, Montana and North Dakota.
Author James Rodriguez: "This is a clean win for the energy industry, but conservation advocates have legitimate concerns about what gets left behind when companies finish drilling."
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