The Trump administration on Wednesday moved to scrap a Biden-era land conservation rule, with Interior Secretary Doug Burgum arguing it blocked mining and drilling needed to reduce U.S. reliance on foreign resources.
“The previous administration’s Public Lands Rule had the potential to block access to hundreds of thousands of acres of multiple-use land — preventing energy and mineral production, timber management, grazing and recreation across the West,” said Burgum.
Joe Biden’s 2023 rule allowed tribes, states, and conservation groups to lease federal land solely for protection. However, Trump’s Interior Department argues that the BLM lacks the authority to prioritize conservation over traditional uses such as energy, mining, and recreation.
“Rescinding the rule restores BLM to its legal mandate and protects these economic drivers from restrictive land-use policies,” the department said in a statement. “The people who depend on public lands for their livelihoods have every incentive to conserve them and have been doing so for generations — no new rule was needed to force what is already a way of life.”
The Interior Department will publish its plan to repeal the public lands rule in Thursday’s Federal Register, opening a 60-day comment period through Nov. 10. Meanwhile, environmental groups condemned the move, accusing the Trump administration of favoring energy development over climate and wildlife protection.
“This [Biden-era] rule provided for healthy habitats and now it’s foolishly being yanked away in service of the ’Drill, baby, drill’ agenda,” Vera Smith, national forests and public lands director at Defenders of Wildlife, said in a statement.
The most effective caretakers of our federal lands are those whose livelihoods rely on its well-being.
Overturning this rule protects our American way of life and gives our communities a voice in the land that they depend on. https://t.co/1mbw9chENI
— Secretary Doug Burgum (@SecretaryBurgum) September 10, 2025
