Sierra Club Statement on House Votes to Overturn Public Lands Protections

Support CleanTechnica’s work through a Substack subscription or on Stripe.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — House Republicans have approved resolutions intended to undermine the protection of millions of acres of public lands in Alaska and overturning guardrails on coal leasing in Wyoming.

In a series of votes Wednesday, House Republicans invoked the Congressional Review Act to disapprove land management plans related to the Arctic Refuge and Western Arctic in Alaska and the Buffalo region of Wyoming. The resolution on the Western Arctic now heads to the White House, where Donald Trump is expected to sign it. The resolutions affecting the Arctic Refuge and Buffalo region have not yet been acted upon by the Senate.

One of the Alaska-focused CRA resolutions, introduced by Rep. Nick Begich (R-AK) would disapprove a 2024 Record of Decision for the Arctic Refuge oil and gas leasing program. The other would scrap the 2022 management plan for the Western Arctic. By adopting the two resolutions, Congressional Republicans aim to undermine and restrict the protection of more than 13 million acres of national public lands in the Arctic, threatening critical habitat for caribou, migratory birds, and polar bears, among other imperiled species.

Wednesday’s votes came after Senate Republicans used the CRA to take unprecedented votes to overturn resource management plans. The Clinton-era law  provides for revoking administrative rules developed by executive agencies, but it had previously never been used to overturn a resource management plan.

In response, Athan Manuel, director of Sierra Club’s Lands Protection Program, released the following statement:

“Congressional Republicans are making it clear they will use every trick in the book to hand over America’s public lands to Big Oil CEOs and corporate polluters. Donald Trump’s vision for public lands in the Arctic and beyond is non-stop extraction that leaves our air and water polluted, our landscapes scarred, and wildlife on the brink of extinction. These votes set a dangerous precedent, selling out our country’s natural heritage to boost the bottom lines of multinational companies while leaving American communities and families out in the cold.”

Rob Joyce, Sierra Club Wyoming Chapter Director, released the following statement: 

“Overturning the Buffalo Field Office Plan is nothing short of political spectacle. Republicans in Congress, including our Wyoming delegation, claim that undoing the BLM’s plan would reinvigorate coal leasing in the Powder River Basin, but we know better. Just this year under the Trump administration the Basin had its first lease sale in over a decade, and what happened? A single bidder offered less than a penny per ton. No one is opening a new coal mine, and none of the mines in Wyoming need more coal. I can’t think of another product that does more harm that people want less — imagine trying to buy two thousand pounds of milk for less than a cent.  Thankfully, BLM denied the bid and later scrapped its sale in Wyoming. Our public lands are worth more than that and our congressional representatives need to recognize that coal isn’t coming back.”

About the Sierra Club

The Sierra Club is America’s largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with millions of members and supporters. In addition to protecting every person’s right to get outdoors and access the healing power of nature, the Sierra Club works to promote clean energy, safeguard the health of our communities, protect wildlife, and preserve our remaining wild places through grassroots activism, public education, lobbying, and legal action. For more information, visit www.sierraclub.org.