The Trump administration continues to silence science, ax transparency and use the American West as a pawn to satisfy corporate donors. The Bureau of Land Management’s new mining and oil and gas leasing “process” emphasizes this.
As a Washington resident, I’m appalled at this plot to shut out public input on land leases for drilling and mining — especially for Westerners who know the land’s value and the risk of pollution all too well. With its new internal memo, BLM is making environmental reviews on certain lands optional, shrinking the public input timeline and effectively undoing every conservation safeguard put in place by previous administrations.
By allowing this unwanted and unwarranted change, these disconnected D.C. politicians are trading the region’s economic well-being and future generations’ outdoor heritage for uncertainty and conflict — something nobody wants. If Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke wants to truly represent the West and be a “Roosevelt conservationist” like he claims, these moves are the opposite of that.
