Loper-Bright May Be Double-Edged Sword Limiting Deregulation Too

Westerners used to jokingly refer to the agency that governs most of the landscape between the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific as the “Bureau of Livestock and Mining.” Oil rigs, coal mines, and grazing cows; imperiled owls and old-growth redwoods be damned.

Congress tried to change that in 1976 with the Federal Land Policy and Management Act. It required the Bureau of Land Management to consider “multiple uses” of land, including recreation, scenic views, and the needs of wildlife as well as all the traditional ones.

The Biden administration interpreted that as saying conservation is as legitimate a “use” ...