The Trump administration and allies in Congress are fundamentally rewriting how federal lands are leased for fossil fuel extraction, and U.S. Rep. Harriet Hageman is celebrating the shifts as a win for Wyoming.
Others, however, worry about vanishing opportunities for public input and the chiseling away of environmental protections.
Recent critics include the Powder River Basin Resource Council, Conservatives for Responsible Stewardship and more than 100 conservation groups that signed a letter Nov. 19 predicting "more mistakes, conflict and harmful development."
The changes are coming fast with a recently passed joint resolution, new permitting legislation and revised bonding rules that critics believe will stick taxpayers with the bill for cleaning up oil and gas well sites.
A year ago, then-BLM Director Tracy Stone-Manning wrote to Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon to tell him, "The BLM has determined that the economic benefits from coal leasing no longer balance with the adverse effects to other public land resources, including but not limited to, air quality and environmental justice, as well as social and economic considerations.”
Stone-Manning cited presidential executive orders under then-President Joe Biden directing agencies to "work on confronting the climate crisis to improve public health and the environment, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, increase renewable energy production on public lands and waters."
That framework is now getting dismantled.
In a social media video, Hageman recounted a string of victories her office noted last week.
Posted Friday, the video reported that Hageman’s House Joint Resolution 130 — which uses the Congressional Review Act to overturn the Buffalo Resource Management Plan Amendment — passed both the House and Senate and is heading to President Trump for his signature.
"This legislation has been about safeguarding Wyoming jobs, protecting our communities and ensuring that America retains a reliable, affordable and secure energy supply," Hageman said in her weekly video update. "The Buffalo RMP ended all future coal leasing in the Powder River Basin, locking away more than 48 billion tons of coal and threatening an industry that provides affordable, reliable energy to millions of Americans."
Hageman described the Biden-era policy as having "jeopardized thousands of jobs and undermined the economic foundation" of Wyoming families.
"Wyoming is the largest coal producer in the nation," she said. "Without us, you're not going to be turning on the lights and you're going to get awfully cold in the wintertime."
Hageman also touted the House Natural Resources Committee's advancement of the SPEED Act — the Standardizing Permitting and Expediting Economic Development Act — which would impose strict new limits on environmental reviews under the National Environmental Policy Act.
"NEPA was created as a purely procedural requirement, but through the efforts of radical environmental groups and activist judges, it was steadily expanded far beyond its original congressional purpose," Hageman said. "NEPA reviews today routinely take years to complete, drive up costs, and are frequently weaponized through litigation to block the construction and development of essential infrastructure throughout the country."
The SPEED Act, she said, "streamlines the permitting process, shortens timelines, and restores clarity as to when NEPA applies."
Pandora's Box?
For those trying to track what rules actually apply to federal lands management now, the situation has become murky.
Sarah Hunkins, Washington, D.C., representative for the Western Organization of Resource Councils, told Cowboy State Daily the use of the Congressional Review Act to overturn the Buffalo RMP raises questions about how land management will work going forward.
"It's still a really big question, and I really don't even know if the Bureau of Land Management knows how to proceed," Hunkins said. "This opens up a total Pandora's box of what does this mean for oil and gas leasing? What does this mean for grazing?"
The Congressional Review Act was designed to give Congress the ability to overturn federal agency rules, but its use against resource management plans is unprecedented, she said. That's created uncertainty about which plans are actually in effect.
"There have been so many things just this year that have slowly chipped away at NEPA and this would severely impair it even more," Hunkins said of the SPEED Act. "It would cut down on timelines. The judicial levers would be seriously, just thrown out for the most part."
The SPEED Act text declares that NEPA "does not mandate particular results."
It would limit environmental review to effects that "share a reasonably close causal relationship to, and are proximately caused by, the immediate project or action under consideration" and would bar consideration of effects deemed "speculative" or "separate in time or place from the project or action."
Cost To Taxpayers
Adding to the upheaval, the Trump administration is moving to roll back Biden-era reforms that raised bonding requirements for oil and gas wells on federal lands.
Conservatives for Responsible Stewardship, a conservation group, released a report warning that if the administration proceeds with rolling back bonding reforms while also opening more than 200 million acres to drilling under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, taxpayers could face up to $753 billion in cleanup liabilities.
The report found that under previous bonding rates, the average bond held per well was $1,700, even though plugging and reclaiming a modern well costs between $35,000 and $200,000, with an average cost of $71,000.
"If you took all plausible scenarios in terms of open wells and the amount of acreage leased and the average number of wells per lease, you come up with $753 billion in potential taxpayer liability," said David Jenkins, president of Conservatives for Responsible Stewardship.
He told Cowboy State Daily, "We're approaching trillion-dollar range."
"Our position is if we as the public are going to let them drill on public lands, and we're going to let them extract the oil and make the profit, then the least they should be able to do is live up to that obligation to plug and clean up the well, instead of playing some kind of shell game where they keep transferring the asset until they get out of the obligation or declare bankruptcy," he said.
Wyoming's Solution
Wyoming has taken its own approach to the bonding issue.
The Petroleum Association of Wyoming praised the state Legislature earlier this year for passing Senate File 20, which created a bonding pool system to help smaller operators meet federal requirements.
"Senate File 20 was developed in response to the Biden Administration's rule that increased bonding amounts in Wyoming by an astonishing 1,400% — a mandate that small, independent producers simply cannot afford," the association said in a statement. "These small operators make up 85% of Wyoming's oil and gas industry, many of them family-run businesses that have contributed to the state's energy production for generations."
PAW President Pete Obermueller called it "a Wyoming solution to a Washington problem."
"By creating a bonding pool funded by industry-paid fees and taxes, we're ensuring that Wyoming's small producers can meet their bonding requirements without being forced to shut down," Obermueller said.
For Hageman, last week's legislative victories represent a turning point for Wyoming's energy economy.
"Repealing the Buffalo RMP will help ensure that Wyoming can continue to develop its resources responsibly, and that our nation can continue to rely on stable, domestically produced energy," she said. "Wyoming has powered this country for generations, and we stand ready to continue meeting America's energy needs."
David Madison can be reached at david@cowboystatedaily.com.
