Wyoming’s lone Congresswoman, Harriet Hageman, is introducing a bill to prevent the implementation of the draft Resource Management Plan (RMP) and Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the BLM Rock Springs Field Office.
Hageman’s office says “the Rock Springs RMP poses an existential threat to Wyoming’s recreation and energy industries.” If approved, the Rock Springs RMP “would block the use of 2.5 million acres of land for pipelines, power lines, and roads and remove 1.8 million acres from recreation and economic development activities. By preventing the implementation of this draft plan and any alternatives proposed, the BLM will be forced to develop a new draft RMP in consultation with state and local stakeholders.”
Not being a fan of the Biden’s Administration plans to lessen and ultimately do away with the fossil fuel industry, Hageman makes clear that “the Biden Administration is continuing to wage war on the West, this time by creating a draft plan that threatens to undermine the economic security of our communities and our very way of life. Each of the plan’s land management ‘alternatives’ will harm key sectors of the local economy, either by severely restricting recreational activity, inhibiting mining and drilling activities, or locking Americans out of their public lands entirely.”
Hageman says she is “alarmed” that the Bureau of Land Management would “support the greatest of the evils by choosing Alternative B, which promises to impose the most severe injury possible to our state, placing massive restrictions around what Wyomingites can and cannot do on millions of acres. Vital revenue streams for our communities will cease to exist, jeopardizing our ability to fund schools and emergency services.”
The demand for the reliable energy, critical minerals, and trona these lands produce won’t disappear, says Hageman in her statement. Instead, “a supply vacuum will be created that other nations, like China, Iran, and Russia, will fill; not only will Americans lose good-paying jobs, but we will become more reliant upon our adversaries to keep the lights on.”
Representative Hageman says she has gone so far as to call on BLM Director Stone-Manning to “abandon this draft RMP and restart the review process. I am also introducing H.R. 6085 to block the implementation of this RMP entirely. The people of Wyoming deserve a plan that is actually designed to access, manage, and use our vast resources instead of walling them off behind bureaucratic red tape.”
