Public Lands Director Faces Republican Ire Over Biden’s Agenda

Senators on Thursday pressed Bureau of Land Management Director Tracy Stone-Manning over her agency’s actions on renewable energy, conservation, and mining.

Stone-Manning faced Republicans at a Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing who said the department was advancing President Joe Biden’s agenda without listening to people directly impacted by the agency’s work.

It was the first time Stone-Manning appeared in front of the committee since she was confirmed to her post on a party-line vote in 2021.

“The director’s decisions have a significant effect on people’s jobs, on their family budgets, on the quality of public education, and on our entire state’s economy,” said Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), the committee’s ranking member. “Ms. Stone-Manning has been busy making decisions which will crush Wyoming’s economy and lay waste to our local communities in the years ahead.”

Sen. Joe Manchin (I-W.Va.), the committee chair, gave opening remarks before leaving to participate in a separate markup of a key annual defense policy bill. Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) chaired the rest of the session.

Heinrich praised the department for its work on the SunZia wind and transmission project in Arizona and New Mexico. The development, which is projected to provide clean power to 3 million Americans after it opens in 2026, is the largest renewable energy project in the US.

Climate Goals

In her remarks, Stone-Manning said she was committed to helping the nation achieve Biden’s goal of eliminating carbon emissions from the power sector by 2035.

“As the steward of one in 10 acres of land in the United States, the BLM has experienced firsthand the increasingly negative effects associated with climate change, including prolonged periods of extreme drought and aridification, elevated wildland fire risk, and greater disruption to sensitive species of wildlife and plants,” Stone-Manning said in her opening statement.

Few Democrats spent much time at the hearing. Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.), and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) all asked questions but didn’t stay for the rest of Stone-Manning’s testimony, instead ceding much of the hearing to their GOP colleagues.

Republicans pressed Stone-Manning on the BLM’s recently finalized public lands rule, which redefines conservation as a “use” of public lands on par with other uses like energy development and mining.

Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) called conservation a “non-use” and said the BLM “manages these lands like a museum,” where visitors can look but not touch.

Stone-Manning pushed back, saying that conservation fit neatly into the agency’s mandate to balance multiple uses of public lands. Conservation must not always be an exclusive use, she said, giving the example of a transmission line built across conserved land or the restoration of grasses in grazing areas.

Senators also asked Stone-Manning about increases to minimum bonding requirements for oil and gas leases, which will go into effect later this month. While Republicans decried the huge jump in cost—minimum individual lease bonds will increase from $10,000 to $150,000—Stone-Manning noted that figure hadn’t been updated since 1960.

The rule, she said, “strengthens bonding standards to help ensure that taxpayers are not saddled with paying industry’s cleanup costs.”