Hoeven Statement on New BLM Resource Management Plan for North Dakota

Hoeven Statement on New BLM Resource Management Plan for North Dakota

Senator Pushing Back on Plan to Lock Away Nearly All Taxpayer-Owned Coal, Half of Federal Oil & Gas Resources in the State

BISMARCK, N.D. - Senator John Hoeven today issued the following statement after the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) released its updated Resource Management Plan (RMP) for North Dakota, which would close off leasing to vast areas of potential federal oil and gas acreage and a majority of federal coal acreage in the state. Further, due to split-estate ownership issue in North Dakota, where federal minerals are often co-located with state or privately-owned minerals under non-federal surface acreage, policies like the RMP prevent mineral holders from exercising their property rights and broadly limit the development of energy resources.

Hoeven has been pushing back on the RMP since the draft was first issued by BLM earlier this year. To this end, Hoeven pressed BLM Director Tracy Stone-Manning and Interior Secretary Deb Haaland to rescind the draft RMP and preserve access to taxpayer-owned minerals in the state.

"This plan brings broad-ranging impacts on North Dakota's energy industry, thereby undermining our nation's energy security. We need access to these vast taxpayer-owned coal reserves to ensure the reliability and affordability of the grid, and Bakken oil and gas are key to making the U.S. energy dominant once again," said Hoeven. "Despite these concerns, the cost to private property rights of North Dakotas and the resulting energy price increases on consumers, BLM has pushed ahead with this heavy-handed regulation. We will continue to fight this and all of the overreaching policies being imposed by the Biden-Harris administration."

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