Interior Department Mum On How It Plans To Unleash Public Lands

A Freedom of Information Act-triggered paper dump from the Interior Department provides a sturdy outline of Interior Secretary Doug Burgum’s fervid drive to mine, log, and drill public lands. But it is woefully short on details.

The nearly 470 pages purportedly support Burgum’s secretarial orders that cite a national energy emergency as the reason to “unleash American Energy” and to move on “Unleashing Alaska’s Extraordinary Resource Potential.” 

But blocks of black obscure much of the report that was released via a Freedom of Information Act request. It blacks out internal deliberations around such details as top priorities to deliver the secretary’s mandates, recommendations for achieving them, barriers in the way, and how success is to be measured.

“These heavily redacted FOIA records confirm what we already know: that the Trump administration is selling off and selling out our public lands to benefit a wealthy few, and they’re doing it all behind closed doors,” said Blaine Miller-McFeeley, senior legislative representative for Earthjustice. “These action plans should be communicated to the public — we all have a right to know what the administration is planning for the treasured places that belong to each of us, and the right to let the administration know what we think."

Importantly, the document does reflect acknowledgement that some administration wishes cannot be carried out by fiat, but would have to involve public hearings and other regulatory processes, for such steps as allowing the baiting of bears in Alaska. But elaboration on those issues is redacted.

What is visible in the 468 pages, which were obtained by The Wilderness Society through a FOIA request filed by Earthjustice, are few dramatic or previously unreported details. Among the topics contained are mining, oil and gas drilling, gravel and sand deposits, hydropower, categorical exclusions that would relax National Environmental Policy Act restrictions, “coercive climate policies,” and how the National Park Service can reduce costs for families.

On that last topic, the document says the Park Service has identified programs and regulations “that may result in higher costs for the American people.” It states “… the top priorities below will ensure the NPS is supporting relief to American families and defeating the cost-of-living crisis.” But after that, those priorities, programs and regulations are blacked out in the document.

Also blacked out are priorities for how the Park Service can “reduce barriers and streamline processes” for energy development within the National Park System.

The documents reflect acknowledgment that reversing former President Joe Biden’s action ban on baiting bears in Alaska national preserves would require drafting a rule that would be open to public comment.

Blacked out were details pertaining to how quickly this might be done.

Similarly, the redactions obscure Interior’s approach to reversing the Biden administration’s decision not to permit a 211-mile road that would cross a portion of Gates of the Arctic National Preserve in Alaska to access a proposed copper mine. 

As previously reported by the National Parks Traveler, the documents also show that the Bureau of Land Management has been charged with reviewing federal lands that have been withdrawn from energy development, and recommending “modifications to withdrawals to eliminate undue burdens on fuel and non-fuel minerals.”

“The review will evaluate existing withdrawals whose modification or revocation lie within Secretarial discretion to make additional lands available for energy development, minerals exploration (including sand and gravel) or other activities that support energy infrastructure,” reads the document.

Park lands that could be impacted by this endeavor include Chaco Cultural National Historical Park in New Mexico —where former-Interior Secretary Deb Haaland established a 10-mile-wide buffer zone around the park that is off-limits to energy development;— and Grand Canyon National Park, where national forest lands in the Grand Canyon watershed have been withdrawn from new development.

The document specifically mentions lands within the “[L]ands are included in the Ancestral Footprints National Monument and notes these are within the Grand Canyon Watershed and so "additional action would be required to open these lands.” 

“The BLM also plans to undertake a review of existing national monuments managed by the BLM and designated under the Antiquities Act to identify any associated withdrawals … that impose undue burdens on energy or mineral production,” it adds. 

Where the document mentions recommendations made by BLM officials, those are redacted, as are specifics that are mentioned as “barriers to overcome” and “milestones.”

Additionally, the documents direct the BLM to figure out how to reverse the Biden administration’s withdrawal of 225,504 acres of the Superior National Forest from mineral and geothermal leasing for 20 years.

The document also supports President Trump’s opposition to renewable energy, noting that, “BLM is reviewing existing rules, guidance, and policies to identify any that bias government decision making in favor of renewable energy projects as compared to oil, gas, or other mineral resource projects. Going forward, it will similarly review new rules, guidance, and policies to ensure that none is based on such bias.”

The parts of the documents that are unredacted do not appear to explain why renewable energy is in the crosshairs if a national energy emergency does exist.