New BLM proposal would slash public comment periods, environmental protections

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management has proposed a rewrite of “some of the most foundational regulations for managing more than 245 million acres of public land across the American West,” Katie Jackson writes for The Trek. The new plan would limit public feedback on projects and weaken environmental protections, but may accelerate project approvals, according to officials from the Department of the Interior. If passed, the BLM’s proposed changes would likely be the most significant overhaul of these rules since 1979.

Under the proposed changes, the BLM would no longer have to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement — which evaluates the harm proposed extraction, grazing and recreation could bring to public land — each time it writes or revises a Resource Management Plan. The proposed rules also slash the mandatory comment period on BLM plans from 90 days to 30, and allows the BLM to replace comment periods with public meetings “when adequate notice to the public is provided.”

“At the intergovernmental level, the proposal ends the requirement that BLM land-use plans maintain consistency with Tribal governments and other federal agency plans, while cutting a state governor’s final consistency review window from 60 days to 30 days and eliminating the governor’s right to appeal a rejection to the BLM Director. These changes strip away the legal leverage that Tribal nations, neighboring federal agencies, and state governors currently use to work with the BLM to align on land-use decisions,” The Trek reports.