EXCLUSIVE: OMB unveils latest Statements of Administration Policy that reverse Biden-era energy restrictions
The Trump administration’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is continuing its work to support the White House’s energy independence agenda, with plans to send three Statements of Administration Policy (SAP) to Congress — obtained exclusively by the Washington Reporter — that disapprove of several radical rules promulgated by the Biden administration’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM).
These SAPs should be welcome news to three freshman GOP lawmakers from energy heavy states: Reps. Troy Downing (R., Mont.), Julie Fedorchak (R., N.D.), and Nick Begich (R., Alaska).
“The Administration strongly supports passage of H.J. Res. 104, H.J. Res. 105, and H.J. Res. 106, which would disapprove three rules submitted by the Bureau of Land Management during the previous Administration,” the OMB’s SAP reads.
The Biden-era rules collectively impact almost 20 million acres of American land, and restrict coal and other mineral production.
Downing’s resolution pushes back against “the Miles City Resource Management Plan (RMP) rule [which] effectively ends future coal leasing within the Miles City Field Office planning area, which will have an adverse impact on Montana’s jobs, economy, and energy security,” the OMB noted. “The rule makes nearly 2,000,000 acres unavailable for coal leasing within the Miles City Field Office planning area and prohibits new coal leasing in the Powder River Basin.”
Fedorchak’s legislation would reverse the regulations that “effectively closed leasing on more than four million acres, or nearly 99 percent of federal coal acreage, and closed off 213,000 acres, or 44 percent, of federally owned fluid mineral acreage from leasing in the State of North Dakota for future development.”
Finally, Begich’s move ends regulations that “similarly effect[] 13.3 million acres of federally managed public lands within Alaska’s Central Yukon planning area, ignoring the State of Alaska’s input and hindering America’s ability to boost mineral production.”
“President Trump prioritizes commonsense policies for hardworking Americans every day and these Biden-era rules do the complete opposite,” the OMB explained. “These out of touch rules collectively raise costs for Americans by artificially restricting energy and mineral production.”
The Biden administration’s Resource Management Plans (RMPs) “further undermine energy security by furthering our dependence on foreign countries and limiting America’s preeminence in powering innovation across our great economy,” the SAP continues. “These RMPs are rules of general applicability and prospective effect because they directly threaten our entire nation’s energy security, increase American dependence on foreign nations for coal and mineral production, and damage the economy while devastating communities. This Administration will continue to unleash America’s affordable and reliable energy and always put the American people and their paycheck first.”
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