Lawmakers and the Government are Advocating for Weakening Crucial Safeguards over Public Territories
In the modern day, it's clear that Americans are growing wary of the relentless attacks on our cherished public lands and the passionate individuals who safeguard them. This unease is further insulted by a new revelation: a substantial majority of our public lands are open for oil and gas exploration, as the current administration undermines both the organizations that protect these lands and the policies that ensure their responsible management.
The Public Lands Rule (PLR), enacted in June 2024, oversees the management of 245 million acres of American public land, balancing conservation, wildlife protection, climate change mitigation, cultural heritage preservation, and public access, alongside responsible energy extraction.
Recent critics, including some lawmakers and industrial groups, have wrongly claimed that the PLR stymies oil and gas development, conjuring an imaginary energy emergency as justification. Today, The Wilderness Society dismissed these claims with their new report, confirming that over 81 percent of public lands remain open to oil and gas leasing. In reality, the oil and gas industry currently holds active leases on over 25 million acres, half of which lies idle.
Despite the evidence illustrating the PLR's innocence, Secretary of the Interior, Doug Burgum, has called for its repeal in the recently released Secretarial Order 3418, "Unlocking American Energy." Concurrently, politicians advocating for public land privatization support the WEST Act—legislation aimed at annihilating the PLR. This coordinated assault is a concerning sign of a political agenda intent on rolling back progress made in preserving accessible public lands, disregarding the public's rallying call for balanced, sustainable land management.
"The genuine crisis we should confront is the alarming number of species facing extinction due to corporate over-expansion. The Public Lands Rule shields federal lands and wildlife from exploitation, ensuring nature is taken into account alongside energy and other pursuits in decision-making," said Robert Dewey, Vice President of Government Relations at Defenders of Wildlife. "The baseless attacks on the PLR by the Trump administration and lawmakers are purely for the benefit of the fossil fuel industry and disregard the strong public support for sustainable public land and wildlife protections."
Defenders of Wildlife, a champion for protecting native animals and plants in their natural habitats, has remained steadfast in its mission for over 75 years. With a vast network of nearly 2.1 million members and activists, Defenders of Wildlife is a leading advocate for innovative solutions to ensure wildlife survival for generations to come.
For more information, please visit https://ourwebsitename.org/newsroom or follow us on X @Defenders.
Media Contact: Zach Klein
Enrichment Data:
Overall: The current situation surrounding rules and policies for public lands, with a particular focus on oil and gas exploration, overlaps with broader discussions on public land ownership and development. However, the specific term "Public Lands Rule (PLR)" is not directly present in the search results, which instead highlight Senate proposals advocating the sale of millions of acres of public land.
Current Proposals and Effects
- Public Land Sales: Senate Republicans are proposing the sale of up to 3.29 million acres of public land over the next five years. This land, managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the U.S. Forest Service, is located primarily in Western states, excluding Montana.[1][2]
- Impact on Oil and Gas Development: The search results do not provide specific information about the PLR, but they do mention amendments concerning drilling in the Western Arctic. Senator Mike Lee’s amendment includes provisions for six lease sales over the following decade, along with the removal of certain regulations meant to protect Indigenous peoples and wildlife habitats.[3] The implications are that initiatives to expand oil and gas development on public lands could be facilitated by land sales.
- Conservation and Community Concerns: Those opposed to the land sales argue that the sales could result in the loss of culturally significant sites, ancestral lands, and conservation areas, thereby undermining public access to these lands.[3][5]
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