ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE: PUBLIC LANDS
There are 245 million acres of public land in the US, one-tenth of the US land area. Traditionally these lands have been offered on lease by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) for cattle ranching, timber production, coal mining, oil drilling and other private uses. Pres. Biden in 2024 put conservation on an equal footing with development for the first time since the BLM was created in 1946. It allowed leases for the restoration of degraded lands and for offsetting environmental damage, and it preserved public land for the use of hikers, anglers, hunters, and renewable energy development.
The Trump administration has canceled the rules favoring conservation and has prioritized the leasing of public lands for private use, forwarding the “drill, baby, drill” agenda. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum (former governor of oil- producing North Dakota) has emphasized a US need for more energy sources, for expansion of AI (which requires huge amounts of electricity) and for export of natural gas. The future of public lands promises to be a major battlefield of public-versus-private interests, with major consequences for the environment.
Source: The New York Times,9/10/25