Forest Service Finalizes Rule to Speed Oil, Gas Permitting (1)

Oil and gas permitting in national forests will be streamlined under a final US Forest Service rule affecting nearly 4 million acres of federal forest land, according to a public inspection notice published Tuesday.

The rule is the final version of a proposal published in the Federal Register in 2020 by the first Trump administration.

The final rule eliminates multiple opportunities for forest officials to choose which forest lands are open for oil and gas leasing and impose stipulations on those operations within national forests, the Forest Service said in ...