Obama-era rule on public land use rolled back

wanted to “remove every job-killing regulation we can find.”

Conservationists and Democrats argued that the Obama administration regulation, known as the Planning 2.0 rule, protected Bureau of Land Management lands from commercial interests.

All GOP senators from Western states, including Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nev., were co-sponsors of a resolution calling for the repeal of the regulation. It was sponsored by Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, the chairwoman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.

The bill passed the Senate earlier this month on a 51-48 vote. Heller voted for the resolution. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., voted against it.

The House of Representatives approved a similar resolution in February on a 234-186 vote. That resolution, sponsored by Rep. Lynn Cheney, R-Wyo., was co-sponsored by Rep. Mark Amodei, R-Nev.

Reps. Ruben Kihuen, Jacky Rosen and Dina Titus, all Nevada Democrats, voted against the resolution.

The Obama administration regulation changed a process at the BLM that had been in place for 34 years.

French said the Obama administration rule would have taken decision making away from local stakeholders and sent it to bureaucrats in Washington. He noted that the two largest industries in Humboldt County were gold mining and livestock, both dependent on public lands.

The regulation would have applied to future use of all 245 million acres of public lands. There are 47.5 million acres of public land in Nevada, according to the BLM. Contact Gary Martin at 202-662-7390 or gmartin@ reviewjournal.com. Follow @garymartindc on Twitter.