During a Senate Energy Committee hearing on Thursday, Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY) gave opening remarks about the impact that the Bureau of Land Management has on Wyoming and slammed Director Tracy Stone-Manning.
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NewsTranscript
00:00Thanks so much, Mr. Chairman. Thank you for holding this important hearing.
00:03Look, this is the first time that Ms. Stone-Manning has appeared before the committee in three years.
00:07The Director of Bureau of Land Management has a profound impact on the people of my home state in Wyoming.
00:14I saw it and heard about it last weekend in Wyoming as I met with the Wyoming Mining Association
00:19and with the Wyoming Stock Growers Association, our ranchers.
00:22Heard about it again last night on a conference call with each of our Wyoming County Commissioners
00:26from each and every one of our 23 counties.
00:29And it's because nearly half of the land in Wyoming is owned by the federal government.
00:33And nearly 70% of the minerals in Wyoming are owned by the federal government.
00:38And the Director manages most of this land.
00:41In Wyoming, the Director's decisions have a significant effect on people's jobs,
00:46on their family budgets, on the quality of public education, and on our entire state's economy.
00:53That is why I find Ms. Stone-Manning's record and her unwillingness to appear before us until now so very troubling.
01:02Since 2021, Ms. Stone-Manning has been busy making decisions which will crush Wyoming's economy
01:08and lay waste to our local communities in the years ahead.
01:12And the examples abound.
01:15In August of 2023, the Bureau's Rock Springs Field Office issued a resource management plan
01:21that would devastate communities in southwest Wyoming.
01:25This is the home of some of the nation's largest deposits of natural gas and a mineral called trona.
01:32These resources support tens of thousands of good-paying jobs.
01:37Under this plan, the Bureau would lock up over 2 million acres of federal land from productive use.
01:45It would prohibit future energy and mineral development, prohibit grazing,
01:49and even recreation. Recreation!
01:53The governor, the state legislature, our entire congressional delegation,
01:58and the county commissioners all strongly oppose the Bureau's plan.
02:04We know what will happen if the plan goes forward.
02:08The Director is making similar decisions in other parts of our state.
02:12Last month, the Buffalo Field Office issued a proposal to end new coal leasing in the Powder River Basin.
02:20Last year, the Powder River Basin supplied 45% of all of the coal mined in the United States of America.
02:28Wyoming's coal production is the lifeblood of Gillette and Northeast Wyoming.
02:32It supports tens of thousands of jobs.
02:35It helps fund K-12 public education in our state.
02:39And there is absolutely no reason to pursue this irresponsible and irrational proposal.
02:47We all know that President Biden wants a carbon-free grid.
02:51As of now, this is a pipe dream.
02:54And according to experts the world over, without an extraordinary technological breakthrough,
03:00it will likely never happen. Never.
03:04In the meantime, we must not block access to the nation's single richest area of abundant, available, and reliable energy.
03:13The Bureau is also wreaking havoc in other areas of the state.
03:17In March of this year, the Bureau issued a resource management plan to address the greater sage-grouse.
03:24For over 15 years, the state of Wyoming has been at the forefront of efforts to protect the species and conserve and restore its habitat.
03:33Wyoming has done so while balancing the need for economic development.
03:37The Bureau is now proposing to undo Wyoming's efforts and block access to millions of acres of federal land.
03:46The list goes on.
03:48In April, the Bureau finalized its so-called public lands rule.
03:52This rule turns multiple use, the Bureau's decades-old bedrock principle of federal land management,
04:01turns it on its head.
04:03It will allow third parties to lease federal lands in order to block the productive use of the land.
04:12This is land which, by law, is to be used for grazing, for energy, for mineral development, and for recreation.
04:19Again, families and communities in Wyoming and throughout the West depend on federal lands for energy and mineral development,
04:27land for grazing, for forest management, and for recreation.
04:32Multiple use is enshrined in federal law, yet Ms. Stone-Manning is attempting to repeal it all on her own.
04:41If this weren't enough, Ms. Stone-Manning is also sabotaging her own Bureau's oil and gas program.
04:48She has failed to hold quarterly lease sales.
04:51She has nearly tripled timelines for permits.
04:55She has refused to deliver leases to the winning bidders.
04:59She has issued a series of regulations to make it prohibitively expensive to explore and produce on federal lands.
05:08None of this should surprise us.
05:10I fought her nomination because Ms. Stone-Manning has long shown her hostility to the people of this country
05:17who live near and depend on federal lands.
05:21And I'm glad today that the committee will finally call her to account.
05:25Thank you, Mr. Chairman.