Land Use & Permitting

BLM Conservation and Landscape Health Rule

In 2023, BLM introduced the proposed Conservation and Landscape Health rule, which would alter BLM’s management of the 245 million acres of lands under its jurisdiction. The final rule was released in April 2024. This rule represents a clear and imminent threat to the minerals industry and its contributions to the economy.

The rule would elevate conservation as an equal “multiple use” of federal lands on par with those set forth in FLPMA, despite the fact the statute does not authorize BLM to do so or include conservation as such an equal use. In addition, under the rule, BLM would be able to set aside vast tracts of federal land for “conservation leases,” which EMA members and other project applicants would have to purchase before obtaining permits. The rule also instructs BLM offices to refrain from authorizing activities that it believes could affect “landscape resilience,” including mining, which the rule specifically lists as such an activity despite its long history of coexistence with other land uses on BLM lands for decades. BLM will now also be able to expand the criteria for Areas of Critical Environmental Concern, further increasing the areas where mining and other activities would be prohibited. Finally, BLM offices are now required to consider land health assessments, evaluations, and determinations across all programs and decision-making processes, which are currently only required for grazing permits.

This rule is a dramatic change in BLM’s land use planning that will be highly detrimental not only to EMA members, but to the Bureau itself and the lands it is responsible for. EMA provided comments to BLM on the draft version of this rule. We remain opposed to this rule and will continue working with other associations as well as lawmakers on Capitol Hill to replace it with a more balanced, legally sound, and practicable approach to public lands management.

Mining Performance Metrics

In February 2024, BLM introduced its Draft Mining Performance Measurements intended to measure the Bureau’s success in the timely consideration of permits for Mine Plans of Operations. However, BLM failed to publicly release the metrics, which is not conducive to effective and transparent stakeholder engagement on issues relating to mining on public lands.

Many EMA members operate on federal lands overseen by BLM to produce essential mineral resources. Efficient, streamlined, and timely permitting processes for mine plans are vital to our members’ operations, but the actual process of obtaining necessary permits is often the exact opposite. However, there are significant concerns regarding the transparency of these metrics as well as the vague definitions and measurements in the performance metrics that would have consequences on all relevant stakeholders. EMA filed comments with the BLM outlining our concerns with both the substance of the performance metrics as well as the non-transparent process by which BLM released them for public comment.