This series of posts consists of excerpts from Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise, a project led by the Heritage Foundation that outlines policy goals for a second Trump term. William Perry Pendley is the author of Chapter 16: Department of the Interior. Pendley was appointed to deputy director of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in 2019 and later served in an unofficial capacity as acting director of the BLM for the remainder of the Trump administration.
While Donald Trump may not pursue all the policies advanced by the Heritage project, these policies are being proposed by individuals who support Trump’s overall approach to governing, many of whom also worked under the first Trump administration. So I’m thinking the Heritage project offers a pretty good idea of what to expect should there be a second Trump administration.
Excerpts* from Chapter 16:
[The Department of the Interior’s] purview encompasses more than 500 million acres of federal lands, including national parks and national wildlife refuges; 700 million acres of sub-surface minerals; 1.7 billion acres of the Outer Continental Shelf; 23 percent of the nation’s energy; water in 17 western states; and trust responsibilities for 566 Indian tribes and Alaska Natives.
Historically, DOI operated in a bipartisan manner consistent with the laws enacted by Congress… That ended with the Administration of President Jimmy Carter, who, beholden to environmental groups that supported his election, adopted DOI policies consistent with their demands, much to the horror of western governors, most of whom were Democrats.
Unfortunately, Biden’s DOI is at war with the department’s mission, not only when it comes to DOI’s obligation to develop the vast oil and gas and coal resources for which it is responsible, but also as to its statutory mandate, for example, to manage much of federal land overseen by the BLM pursuant to “multiple use” and “sustained yield” principles**.
Administration Priorities:
Rescind the Biden rules and reinstate the Trump rules regarding the Endangered Species Act rules defining Critical Habitat and Critical Habitat Exclusions and the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.
Vacate President Biden’s Executive Order 14008, the 30 by 30 Plan, [which aims to restore and conserve at least 30% of US lands and waters by 2030.]
The work of the Fish and Wildlife Service is the product of “species cartels” afflicted with group-think, confirmation bias, and a common desire to preserve the prestige, power, and appropriations of the agency that pays or employs them. For example, in one highly influential sage-grouse monograph, 41 percent of the authors were federal workers.
Meaningful reform of the Endangered Species Act (ESA) requires that Congress take action to restore its original purpose and end its use to seize private property, prevent economic development, and interfere with the rights of states over their wildlife populations. In the meantime, a new Administration should take the following immediate action:
Delist the grizzly bear in the Greater Yellowstone and Northern Continental Divide Ecosystems.
Delist the gray wolf in the lower 48 states.
Direct the Fish and Wildlife Service to end its abuse of Section 10( j) of the ESA by re-introducing so-called “experiment species” populations into areas that no longer qualify as habitat and lie outside the historic ranges of those species.
Abolish the Biological Resources Division of the U.S. Geological Survey.
[End ESA] reliance on so-called species specialists who have obvious self-interest, ideological bias, and land-use agendas.
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* Punctuation was occasionally revised for aesthetics and readability. I occasionally added acronyms or full names for acronyms that weren’t in the original text. My intention in this series of posts is informational, so for now I’m keeping my opinions to myself.
** Per a June 21, 2023 report by the Congressional Research Service: The Federal Land Policy and Management Act (FLPMA) multiple use principle obliges the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to manage lands so that they “are utilized in the combination that will best meet the present and future needs of the American people…taking into account ‘the long-term needs of future generations for renewable and nonrenewable resources, including, but not limited to, recreation, range, timber, minerals, watershed, wildlife and fish, and natural scenic, scientific and historical values…with consideration being given to the relative values of the resources and not necessarily to the combination of uses that will give the greatest economic return or the greatest unit output”. FLPMA defines sustained yield as “the achievement and maintenance in perpetuity of a high-level annual or regular periodic output of the various renewable resources of the public lands consistent with multiple use”. On March 30, 2023, BLM took a step to define more explicitly how it will balance the competing goals of multiple use and sustained yield principles, issuing a proposed rule to amend its regulations to prioritize healthy ecosystems. Perhaps the most significant change proposed in the rule is the creation of “conservation leases,” a proposed new program that would allow BLM to issue leases on federal lands ‘for the purpose of pursuing ecosystem resilience through mitigation and restoration’.”
Reference:
Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise/2025 Presidential Transition Project, edited by Paul Dans and Steven Groves.