The Trump administration’s move to rescind the Biden-era Public Lands Rule eliminates a nascent plan to use conservation to limit oil and gas development on 245 million acres of federal land before it gets underway.
The Interior Department announced Sept. 10 it plans to rescind the rule, which defined conservation as a “use” of federal land and was finalized by the Biden administration in June 2024. The rule was designed to use long-term land planning processes to protect intact ecosystems and wildlife migration corridors.
Little, if any, land has been conserved under the rule, and the Biden administration only ...