GORDON PUSHES BACK AGAINST PLAN TO SELL LAND LEASES FOR CONSERVATION

Governor Mark Gordon and other Republican Governors are pushing back against a proposal by the Biden administration to put conservation on equal footing with industry on vast government-owned lands. Some saying it would cause “deep devastation.” The White House’s plan would allow conservationists and others to lease federally owned land to restore it, much the same way oil companies buy leases to drill and ranchers pay to graze cattle. The Bureau says the move will make conservation an “equal” to grazing, drilling and other uses while not interfering with them.