To prohibit the implementation of the Approved Resource Management Plan Amendment for the Buffalo, Wyoming Field Office of the Bureau of Land Management.
To prohibit the implementation of the Approved Resource Management Plan Amendment for the Buffalo, Wyoming Field Office of the Bureau of Land Management.
Plain Language Summary
# HR 230 Summary **What the Bill Would Do** HR 230 would prevent the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) from putting into effect a 2024 resource management plan for its Buffalo Field Office in Wyoming. This plan affects nearly 780,000 acres of public land and over 4.7 million acres of mineral rights in north-central Wyoming. The bill essentially blocks the BLM from implementing, managing, or enforcing this newly updated plan. **Background and Key Details** The Buffalo Field Office has had a management plan since 2015 that allowed coal leases on public lands. In 2018, a federal court ruled the BLM needed to conduct a more thorough environmental review of the plan, including considering alternative approaches and assessing environmental impacts—as required by federal environmental law.
The 2024 amended plan appears to be the BLM's response to that court order. By sponsoring this bill, Representative Harriet Hageman (R-WY) seeks to block implementation of the updated plan. **Current Status** The bill is currently in committee and has not yet been voted on by the full House. It affects management of public lands in Wyoming and touches on issues related to coal development, environmental protection, and government regulation of natural resources.
CRS Official Summary
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.
Latest Action
Referred to the House Committee on Natural Resources.