A recent Washington Post article cataloged “Biden’s most consequential environmental actions and the difficulty of reversing them, according to a Post analysis of hundreds of regulations.” Reversing them would in most cases lead to litigation. Here are the ones that are most directly related to federal land management. (Interesting that the BLM’s high profile public lands rule isn’t among them.)
End to new coal leasing in the Powder River Basin
Difficulty of repeal: Medium
What the policy does: The Bureau of Land Management finalized a decision to end new coal leasing in the Powder River Basin in Montana and Wyoming.
Challenges: The attorneys general of Montana and Wyoming sued over the decision, saying it would block development in an area that accounts for around 85 percent of all coal produced on federal lands.
Expansion of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments
Difficulty of repeal: Easy
What the policy does: Biden restored full protections to three national monuments that had been slashed in size by Trump, including Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante in Utah.
Challenges: Trump could once again shrink these sites by signing a proclamation under the Antiquities Act. But doing so could spark a prolonged legal battle with conservation groups.
Creation of Chuckwalla National Monument
Difficulty of repeal: Easy
What the policy does: Biden designated the roughly 624,000-acre Chuckwalla National Monument in Southern California near Joshua Tree National Park. The move bars drilling, mining and other industrial activity on land that several Native American tribes have considered sacred for thousands of years.
Challenges: Any attempt to reduce the size of Chuckwalla would encounter fierce resistance from Indigenous and environmental advocates.
Creation of Avi Kwa Ame National Monument
Difficulty of repeal: Easy
What the policy does: Biden designated a sacred tribal site in southern Nevada as the Avi Kwa Ame National Monument.
Challenges: Tribal leaders would also fight any attempt to slash the boundaries of Avi Kwa Ame, which is considered among the most sacred places on Earth by the Mojave, Chemehuevi and some Southern Paiute people.
Protection of Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness
Difficulty of repeal: Medium
What the policy does: The Interior Department banned mining for 20 years in a sensitive watershed near Minnesota’s Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. The decision affects more than 225,000 acres of federal land near Boundary Waters, the most heavily visited wilderness area in the country.
Challenges: During his first term, Trump and his appointees moved to renew expired leases for a copper and nickel mining operation on the border of Boundary Waters. The move drew criticism from conservationists and some Minnesota residents who said it could benefit a foreign firm — a subsidiary of Chilean mining giant Antofagasta PLC — at the expense of local water quality.
Rejection of Ambler Road
Difficulty of repeal: Medium
What the policy does: The Interior Department blocked the construction of Ambler Road, which would have been crucial to operating a planned copper and zinc mine in northern Alaska. Interior found the road would cause irreparable harm to wildlife including caribou, which many Alaska Natives depend on for food.
Challenges: Alaska Natives and environmentalists argue it would be difficult to refute the Biden administration’s lengthy and detailed analysis.
Hold that thought on “would be difficult to refute the Biden administration’s lengthy and detailed analysis.” I feel like a point may be getting missed here. I don’t think it’s necessary to refute the analysis unless the analysis establishes a violation of a substantive law (and I’m not sure if that is this case). Otherwise, an agency could agree that the impacts of a decision are awful, but could make that decision anyway for its own reasons (as long as they are not arbitrary). The Antiquities Act authorizing national monuments has other considerations we have discussed.
This all needs to be viewed through the new lens of the Roper Bright case, which overruled the application of Chevron deference to federal agencies by courts. Here’s some more speculation about how that ruling may play out in future federal lands litigation. If some of you have thought that having judges “managing” our federal lands is a bad idea, this could be your worst nightmare.
Drill baby drill is really about mining crypto and abetting Russia so expect the Powder River Basin to be mined for coal and wind turbine blade used as backfill.
Some Wyoming legislators just said screw it after the Freedom Caucus sank its claws into Cheyenne and Democrats aren’t even bothering to run because of threats on their lives. So, turnout for the state’s primary election barely registered as voters just stayed home as an expression of disgust for the extreme white wing of the Wyoming Republican Party.
So why does TrumpWorld want to ditch the US Dollar for crypto? At about half of California’s gross domestic product Russia is virtually irrelevant in the global marketplace and destined to become a Chinese client state sooner than later. So North Dakota’s former governor and Interior pick is a crypto guy but Bitcoin mining in the Permian Basin is driving pollution into the ozone, too.