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House Votes to Repeal Biden-Era Land Plans Limiting Development in Alaska, Montana and North Dakota

Senate approval could quickly open the door to new leasing, including pending coal sales.

FILE - Rep. Joe Neguse, D-Colo., with the House Rules Committee speaks as the committee meets to discuss pregnancy in college students, after deciding not to consider the resolutions to hold Hunter Biden in contempt of Congress as planned on Tuesday, Jan. 16, 2024, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)
FILE - In this April 4, 2013, file photo, a mining dumper truck hauls coal at Cloud Peak Energy's Spring Creek strip mine near Decker, Mont. AP Photo/Matthew Brown, File)
FILE - Rep. Bruce Westerman, R-Ark., center, chairman of the House Committee on Natural Resources, joined at right by Rep. Frank Pallone, D-N.J., the House Energy Committee ranking member, delivers remarks as the House Rules Committee prepares the GOP signature energy package, the "Lower Energy Costs Act," for action on the floor, at the Capitol in Washington, Monday, March 27, 2023. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
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Overview

  • The House passed three Congressional Review Act resolutions: 211-208 to nullify the Miles City, Mont., plan, 215-211 to undo the North Dakota plan, and 215-210 to roll back Alaska’s Central Yukon plan.
  • Biden-era resource plans had restricted leasing, including 1,745,040 acres in the Miles City area set as unavailable, limits in North Dakota confining new leasing to within four miles of existing mines, and constraints affecting oil, gas and mineral exploration in Alaska’s Central Yukon region.
  • Republicans framed the repeal effort as boosting energy security, jobs and critical minerals, while Democrats, tribes and conservation groups warned of harm to habitat and an alarming precedent for public-lands planning.
  • Using the CRA allows a fast-track reversal and would bar similar agency rules in the future, but the measures still require Senate passage before taking effect.
  • A swift repeal could enable near-term actions such as a proposed 167-million-ton coal lease in southeastern Montana scheduled for Oct. 6, even as BLM separately awarded a 18.3-million-ton coal lease at North Dakota’s Freedom Mine.