An Easy Guide To Why The GOP’s Public Land Policies Are Fucking Stupid

Prioritizing extraction over all else just breaks things, without actually creating more extraction

Congratulations, all of us worked together and got the sell-off of millions of acres of public land removed from the Republicans’ budget reconciliation package before that was signed into law. While that is both hugely important and easy to understand, the only piece of significant legislation that will be signed into law during this administration still causes much harm to those public lands. Just in the stupidest, least productive way possible. Here’s why.

What’s In The Bill?

Jim Pattiz over at More Than Just Parks did a great job of breaking out all the changes to public land policies contained in the budget package. Remember that budgets are legislation, so this whole mess changes laws, rules and policies as much as it does dollars and cents.

I’m going to focus narrowly here on logging, oil and gas leasing, and coal extraction. Policies that govern those operations on Bureau of Land Management and National Forest lands are supposed to prioritize multiple use and sustained yield. With the American people as stakeholders, public land management should, when used correctly, balance diverse national interests like energy, grazing, wildlife conservation, and outdoor recreation, while protecting resources like clean air and clean water. And it should do that while earning all of us money. Not only do revenues earned on public lands help reduce the tax burdens all of us face, but operations there create jobs, support rural communities, and fund the necessary maintenance of our public lands system.

I want you to keep that in mind as you read this. Public lands are massive economic drivers that are crucial to the American economy, both an on the macro and micro scale. This is not an argument about hugging trees, it’s one about managing resources wisely.

Wow, That’s A Lot Of Logging

I’m going to write these words once, just because they’re so stupid it pains me to type them out: The “One Big Beautiful Bill,” (so named because Congress is so dysfunctional Republicans will only be able to pass a single piece of major legislation this term, and because our President is goddamn moron) contains provisions that will:

• Mandate that USFS increase timber sales by 250 million board feet of lumber each year, from 2026 through 2034.

• Mandate that BLM increase timber sales by 20 million board feet each year, from 2026 through 2034.

• Mandate 20-year timber contracts for both BLM and USFS.

Why It’s Stupid: In 2023, USFS sold 3.08 billion board feet of timber. BLM manages some large areas of forest in Oregon, and timber sales there fluctuate, but have historically been between 100 and 300 million board feet.

Increasing USFS timber sales by 250 million board feet annually will take volumes up to over 12 billion by 2034. That’s roughly equal to historic highs from the 1980s.

For BLM land, the annual volume of sales by 2034 will be an additional 720 million board feet beyond whatever starting point you want to use.

The thing is, those are sales, not actual extraction. Given that many of those will now be on 20 year terms, versus the less-than-ten-year terms that are currently common, and that budgets at USFS to support logging are being slashed, it seems like the result here will be a massive increase in logging permits on public lands, not actual logging on public lands.

But, before you breath a sight of relief, remember that the administration has also been trying to eliminate the the processes that make sure extraction projects on public lands are conducted in benefit of all stakeholders. In the past, the public comment and environmental reviews dictated by the National Environmental Policy Act have helped logging work to reduce wildlife risk, avoid clogging waterways up with erosion runoff, and stay away from the critical habitats for endangered species. In addition to the already shortened or eliminated comment periods and various “emergency” workarounds, this bill also contains a provision that would allow private companies to pay an additional fee to speed past review.

How This Hurts The Economy: Around 90 percent of all logging in this country takes place not on public land, but on private. So even given the enormous-sounding timber volumes here, they’re a drop in the bucket for America’s logging industry.

But while logging operations on public lands will grow as a result of these policies, that money will no longer stay in nearby communities. In addition to expanding the sale of logging permits, the bill contains a provision to eliminate a program that shares revenue with the counties where that logging takes place. As Pattiz points out on More Than Just Parks, this is doubly problematic. Counties rely on this money to fund essential services like schools and road construction, and logging operations are heavy users of county-level infrastructure like those roads. So while wear and tear to those will be increased, the money intended to pay upkeep is being stolen by Republican politicians. Schools will then not only lose a source of revenue, but the general funds for impacted counties will now be further depleted as infrastructure funding falls behind needs as well.

Then there’s the question of other economic drivers in those rural communities: recreation and tourism. Without the NEPA processes designed to protect them, resources like trout streams will become more and more impacted by logging operations, in ways entire generations have forgotten can occur (NEPA was signed into law by President Nixon in 1970). As fish reproduction is harmed by runoff, fewer anglers will visit, reducing demand for lodging, guides, restaurants and other services in nearby communities. The same will be true as opportunities to hunt, fish, and recreate outdoors are reduced.

And as this uncontrolled logging (here’s an explainer on the recission of the Roadless Rule) increases both the occurrence and severity of wildfires, those problems with runoff and lost habitat will become worse, while further depleting the budgets of both the states and federal agencies that pay to fight them. Agency budgets Trump is cutting. Also on the chopping block is the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which provides assistance both remediating damage from wildfires, and helping local communities rebuild after them.

And all of that will be difficult to undo, given the 20-year permit terms included in the bill.

Everything Is Oil And Gas

Provisions in the bill that benefit the oil and gas industries include:

• Mandates quarterly oil and gas lease sales.

• Mandates mandatory lease sales even if there’s no demand in:

  • Wyoming

  • New Mexico

  • Colorado

  • Utah

  • Montana

  • North Dakota

  • Oklahoma

  • Nevada

  • Alaska

• Orders BLM to auction at least 50 percent of areas requested by industry in each quarterly sale

  • Reduces agency’s ability to protect sensitive environments

• Locks in environmental safeguards at levels from date lease is sold

  • Industry won’t be subject to future laws on leases bought now

• 18-month deadline to lease anything industry requests

  • BLM must offer for auction any parcels industry wants by end of 2026

• Reduced royalties, pricing

  • Royalty rates paid to Treasury go from 16.67% to 12.5%

  • Leases can be sold for as little as $1.50/acre

Why It’s Stupid: This is easier to explain than logging. Under the Biden administration, oil and gas production on public lands grew to record levels. They’re so high in fact that oil and gas companies have stated they have no intention of increasing production, even if they have the opportunity to buy more leases. Doing so would decrease consumer prices and hurt industry profits.

How This Hurts The Economy: The administration plans to offer more than 200 million acres of BLM land for oil and gas leasing (here’s a map). And while those leases will largely go unused, they will prevent other forms of use, while locking in environmental protections at Trump levels.

I want to make this clear: BLM land that is leased for oil and gas extraction, which is is unused, remains accessible to the public. So this is not a sneaky attempt to sell off public land. What it is is a giveaway to the oil and gas industry at the expense of other economic sectors.

Who else might want to lease BLM land? Renewable energy is one potential use. But now, oil and gas firms are being given the opportunity to block competition from that sector, all at fire sale prices.

This will combine with other provisions in the bill and other efforts by the administration to hurt America’s renewable energy industries. While the bill expands taxpayer subsidization of oil and gas through decreased royalty rates (Texas, in comparison, charges up to 25 percent), it also eliminates tax breaks for renewables.

This is very much a case of politicians choosing a winner rather than relying on free markets to decide. According to the Department of Energy, oil and gas directly employ about 2 million Americans. That number for renewables is about 3.5 million. The Solar Energy Industry Association estimates that the bill will cost 330,000 jobs in that segment alone.

And choosing oil and gas over renewables will have impacts on other economic sectors as well. Industries of the future like Artificial Intelligence and electric vehicles require vast amounts of power that only renewables will be able to fulfill. By ceding technology development and rollout of renewables to China and other countries, Republicans are also giving away any hope our country had at remaining the world’s largest economy.

One crazy thing here is that neither the expanded lease sales nor the reduced royalty rates will have much impact on Payments in Lieu of Taxes. These are payments made from the federal government to counties with federal lands inside their borders, to offset the property taxes that could otherwise be assessed were those lands private. Acknowledging that more leases won’t equal more extraction, economists predict PILT payments will remain largely static past 2034.

Make Coal Burning Great Again

The pace of development for new technologies in both natural gas and renewables has rendered the price of generating electricity using coal uncompetitive. But again ignoring market conclusions, Republicans are choosing to shore up a failed industry.

In benefit of coal, the bill:

• Creates a 90-day window in which coal companies can nominate areas of public land they want to lease, with guaranteed approval within that time period.

• Mandates at least 4 million acres of new coal leases

• Cuts royalties on coal extracted from public land from 12.5 to 7 percent.

• Allows companies to mine parcels adjacent to current or new operations without permits.

Why this is stupid: In 2024 the American coal mining industry employed only 42,600 people. Still-existing coal-fired power plants were largely due to go offline, due to both the uncompetitive cost of their fuel source, and their environmental impacts. Burning coal causes respiratory illnesses, heart conditions, and neurological impairment.

How this will hurt the economy: The annual cost of health problems caused by burning coal in this country is estimated to be as high as $500 billion, about twice the coal industry’s annual revenue.

Top photo: The dust bowl, courtesy USDA.

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