BLM's Planning 2.0 proposal comes under fire at House hearing

The Bureau of Land Management should listen to state and local officials who want more time to comment on BLM's proposed land-use planning rule, House lawmakers and representatives of Western states said at a hearing today. The process laid out in the proposed Planning 2.0 rule would diminish the role of elected officials and give authority to an “unaccountable Washington, D.C., bureaucracy” to make decisions on Western land-use planning, Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, said. Gohmert chairs the House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations. BLM Resource Management Plans guide decisions on grazing and mineral development on the bureau's 250 million acres out West. Ranchers and energy companies have both expressed concern over the proposed planning process.