As part of President Donald Trump’s push to increase domestic energy production, the Interior Department is reviewing ways to utilize federal lands, which has alarmed environmental activists.
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum on Feb. 3 directed his assistant secretaries to “review and, as appropriate, revise all withdrawn public lands,” citing a federal statute corresponding to the Antiquities Act of 1906, which allows presidents to create national monuments, the Los Angeles Times reported Friday.
Burgum’s directive builds off an Inauguration Day executive order by Trump titled “Unleashing American Energy” that says it is now U.S. policy to “encourage energy exploration and production on federal lands and waters, including on the Outer Continental Shelf, in order to meet the needs of our citizens and solidify the United States as a global energy leader long into the future.”
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