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This bill would stop the federal government from carrying out a land management plan change for the Buffalo Field Office of the Bureau of Land Management in Wyoming. In plain terms, it blocks the Interior Department from putting that updated plan into effect, running it, or enforcing it. The bill is aimed at one specific planning decision made by the Bureau of Land Management for that area.
- It applies to the approved resource management plan amendment for the Buffalo, Wyoming Field Office.
- The bill says the Secretary of the Interior may not implement, administer, or enforce that amendment.
- It refers to the official notice of the decision published in the Federal Register on November 27, 2024.
Official Summaries
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.
Current Full Text
[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 230 Introduced in House (IH)]
<DOC>
119th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. R. 230
To prohibit the implementation of the Approved Resource Management Plan
Amendment for the Buffalo, Wyoming Field Office of the Bureau of Land
Management.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
January 7, 2025
Ms. Hageman introduced the following bill; which was referred to the
Committee on Natural Resources
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To prohibit the implementation of the Approved Resource Management Plan
Amendment for the Buffalo, Wyoming Field Office of the Bureau of Land
Management.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. RESTRICTION ON APPROVED RESOURCE MANAGEMENT PLAN AMENDMENT
FOR BUFFALO, WYOMING FIELD OFFICE OF BUREAU OF LAND
MANAGEMENT.
The Secretary of the Interior may not implement, administer, or
enforce the Approved Resource Management Plan Amendment for the
Buffalo, Wyoming Field Office of the Bureau of Land Management referred
to in the notice of availability published by the Bureau of Land
Management titled ``Notice of Availability of the Record of Decision
and Approved Resource Management Plan Amendment for the Buffalo Field
Office, Wyoming'' (89 Fed. Reg. 93650; published November 27, 2024).
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