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HOUSE 230119th CongressReferred to the House Committee on Ways and Means.

Expressing the sense that Congress and the administration must work together, with urgency, to pursue effective food and agricultural trade policies.

Last Action
3/18/2025

Actions

  • 2025-01-07Referred to the House Committee on Natural Resources.
  • 2025-01-07Introduced in House
  • 2025-01-07Introduced in House

CRS Summary

As of 2025-01-07 (00)

This bill prohibits the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) from implementing, administering, or enforcing its 2024 Approved Resource Management Plan Amendment for its Buffalo Field Office in Wyoming. The field office manages 780,291 acres of public lands and 4,731,140 acres of mineral estates within Campbell, Johnson, and Sheridan Counties in north-central Wyoming.

In 2015, the BLM published a management plan for the field office that allowed leases of certain public lands or mineral estates within the office's planning area for the development of coal. 

In 2018, the U.S. District Court for the District of Montana in Western Organization of Resource Councils v. Bureau of Land Management ordered the BLM to complete a new environmental impact statement (EIS) for the management plan under the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969, which requires an agency to include all reasonable alternatives to its action and the environmental impacts resulting from the action. Specifically, the court ordered the BLM to issue an EIS that considers an alternative of not leasing coal under the management plan as well as an alternative that limits the amount of coal potentially available for leasing.

In response to the court order, the BLM published an amendment to the plan on November 27, 2024. The amended plan made no acres within the office's planning area available for future coal leasing in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. However, it allowed existing coal leases to be developed.

Subjects

  • Administrative law and regulatory procedures
  • Climate change and greenhouse gases
  • Coal
  • Department of the Interior
  • Mining
  • Wyoming
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Sourced from Congress.gov (public domain).

This is legal information, not legal advice. Laws vary by jurisdiction and change frequently. Always verify current law with official sources and consult a licensed attorney in your jurisdiction for advice on your specific situation.