Land Bureau Director Gets Bipartisan Pushback on Proposed Rule

A House Natural Resources subcommittee on Tuesday assailed Bureau of Land Management Director Tracy Stone-Manning and the agency’s proposed Public Lands Rule for elevating conservation needs over fossil fuels and avoiding an environmental review.

The bureau’s proposed rule considers conservation as a “use” of public lands under a federal law governing the agency’s land management practices. Fossil fuel drilling and production would be blocked from areas the bureau is conserving under the proposed rule.

“You’re creating a new use, and you’re crowding out the uses you’re supposed to be doing,” Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-Colo.) told Stone-Manning at the hearing. “This ...