U.S. Interior Dept BLM rule prioritizes conservation and clean energy

From today's Washington Post article:

"For decades, the federal government has prioritized oil and gas drilling, hardrock mining and livestock grazing on public lands across the country. That could soon change under a far-reaching Interior Department rule that puts conservation, recreation and renewable energy development on equal footing with resource extraction.

The final rule released Thursday represents a seismic shift in the management of roughly 245 million acres of public property — about one-tenth of the nation’s land mass.

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'We oversee 245 million acres, and every land manager will tell you that climate change is already happening. It’s already impacting our public lands,' [Bureau of Land Management director Tracy] Stone-Manning said during a Washington Post Live event last year. 'We see it in pretty obvious ways, through unprecedented wildfires.'"

— The U.S. just changed how it manages a tenth of its land: The Interior Department rule puts conservation and clean energy development on par with drilling, mining and resource extraction on federal lands for the first time, Maxine Joselow, Washington Post, April 18, 2024