House Natural Resources Committee Continues Attack on America’s Public Lands

Washington, DC – Earlier today, the House Natural Resources Committee passed a reconciliation package that sells off and sells out public lands in the name of filling corporations' coffers at the expense of the public's access to nature and recreation, wildlife and clean air and water. The committee included a last-minute amendment that would sell off public lands in Nevada. The bill also sells out public lands across the West, including America’s Western Arctic; gives sweetheart deals to Big Oil; allows corporations to buy their way out of environmental review and oversight; and rescinds money provided in the Inflation Reduction Act for the Bureau of Land Management to carry out conservation, ecosystem and habitat restoration, and resiliency projects.

Below is a statement from David Feinman, Conservation Lands Foundation’s (CLF) Vice President of Government Affairs, on the advancement of this package. CLF represents a national network of community advocates who are solely focused on the public lands overseen by the Bureau of Land Management including National Conservation Lands and similar protected public lands in the Western Arctic.

“Voters from all walks of life should know that policymakers who passed this package have only corporate financial interests at heart when it comes to our nation’s cherished public lands and waters. With this vote, the House Natural Resources Committee is working to fill corporate coffers at the expense of the beautiful, priceless public lands across our country that they view as a ‘balance sheet.’

“Among the most destructive elements of the reconciliation bill are efforts to mandate the sell-off of more than a hundred thousand acres of public lands in Nevada, require quarterly oil and gas lease sales on unprecedented amounts of national public lands; bring back noncompetitive leasing - the bargain basement of oil and gas leasing - on public lands; lower royalty rates paid to U.S. taxpayers for drilling on public lands; mandate lease sales every two years in the Western Arctic (NPR-A) with a minimum of 4 million acres offered per sale; bypass a popular funding mechanism in Southern Nevada that provides community benefits, including outdoor access and public education, when public lands are sold; and amend the National Environmental Policy Act to allow corporations to pay for expedited environmental reviews.

“In addition, the legislation rescinds money for public lands stewarded by the Bureau of Land Management provided in the Inflation Reduction Act and blocks sensible management of public lands by preventing the BLM from implementing several recently completed land management plans, short-circuiting years of public input, science and land management expertise.

“Today’s vote signals that America’s public lands and waters are once again under attack by anti-public land elected officials who are working in service of a radical, corporate-driven agenda. We urge the full House of Representatives to reject this bill and direct the Committee to start over again with the best interest of all Americans at heart.”