REFERENCE TITLE: BLM planning 2.0 rule; opposition

State of Arizona Senate Fifty-third Legislature First Regular Session 2017

SCR 1019

Introduced by Senator Griffin

 

A CONCURRENT resolution

 

expressing opposition to the Bureau of Land management's planning 2.0 rule.

 

(TEXT OF BILL BEGINS ON NEXT PAGE)

 

      Whereas, according to the Bureau of Land Management's (BLM) website, the BLM, which manages a significant portion of this nation's land and minerals, "undertakes extensive land use planning through a collaborative approach with local, state and tribal governments, the public, and stakeholder groups" to "ensure the best balance of uses and resource protections for America's public lands"; and

Whereas, on December 1, 2016, the BLM issued a final rule, known as the Planning 2.0 rule, that makes changes to its planning process; and

Whereas, the Planning 2.0 rule removed language requiring an assessment of policy impacts on local economies and replaced it with language requiring an assessment of "impacts of resource management plans on resource, environmental, ecological, social and economic conditions"; and

Whereas, by prioritizing these impacts over managing for "multiple use and sustained yield," the Planning 2.0 rule threatens grazing and other multiple uses on BLM land; and

Whereas, the Planning 2.0 rule reduces the influence of state and local governments by removing the Federal Land Policy and Management Act requirements for the BLM to make land use decisions with meaningful involvement from state and local governments, drastically reducing their ability to weigh in on the best balance of uses and resource protections for public lands within their jurisdictions; and

Whereas, the BLM touts the Planning 2.0 rule as improving transparency, but the rule shortens public comment periods on the BLM plans, which take years to prepare, from 90 days to 45 or 60 days depending on the stage, thereby diminishing transparency in the planning process.

Therefore

Be it resolved by the Senate of the State of Arizona, the House of Representatives concurring:

      That the Members of the Legislature oppose the Bureau of Land Management's Planning 2.0 rule.