BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — Interior Secretary Doug Burgum earlier this week proposed canceling a public-land management rule that allows for the leasing of public land for conservation as President Donald Trump’s administration seeks to open more taxpayer-owned tracts to drilling, logging, mining and grazing.

The rule was a part of efforts under former President Joe Biden to refocus the Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management, which oversees about 10 percent of land in the United States.

Adopted last year, it allowed public property to be leased for restoration in the same way that oil companies lease land for drilling.

Industry and agriculture groups were opposed to the Biden rule and had lobbied lawmakers to reverse it. States including North Dakota, where Burgum served as governor before joining Trump’s Cabinet, pursued a lawsuit hoping to block the rule.

This week’s announcement is the latest of several actions since Trump took office aimed at boosting energy production from the federal government’s vast land holdings, which are concentrated in Western states, including Alaska, California, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming.

Interior officials said the Biden rule had sidelined people who depend on public lands for their livelihoods and imposed unnecessary restrictions.

Burgum said in a statement that it would have prevented thousands of acres from being used for energy and mineral productions, grazing and recreation.

Overturning it “protects our American way of life and gives our communities a voice in the land that they depend on,” Burgum said.

“The previous administration’s Public Lands Rule had the potential to block access to hundreds of thousands of acres of multiple-use land — preventing energy and mineral production, timber management, grazing and recreation across the West,” Burgum said.

Environmentalists had largely embraced the rule that was finalized in April 2024. Supporters argued that conservation was a long-neglected facet of the land bureau’s mission under the 1976 Federal Lands Policy Management Act.

“The administration cannot simply overthrow that statutory authority because they would prefer to let drilling and mining companies call the shots,” said Alison Flint, senior legal director at The Wilderness Society.

While the bureau previously issued leases for conservation purposes in limited cases, it never had a dedicated program for it.

Critics said the change under Biden violated the “multiple use” mandate for Interior Department lands, by catapulting the “non-use” of federal lands — meaning restoration leases — to a position of prominence.

The rule also promoted the designation of more “areas of critical environmental concern” — a special status that can restrict development. It’s given to land deemed to have historic or cultural significance or that’s important for wildlife conservation.

In addition to its surface land holdings, the land bureau regulates publicly-owned underground mineral reserves — such as coal for power plants and lithium for renewable energy — across more than a million square miles. The bureau has a history of industry-friendly policies and for more than a century has sold grazing permits and oil and gas leases.

The pending publication of Burgum’s proposal will kick off a 60-day public comment period.

House Republicans last week repealed land management plans adopted in the closing days of former President Joe Biden’s administration that restricted development in large areas of Alaska, Montana and North Dakota.

Interior officials also announced a proposal aimed at increasing mining and drilling in Western states with populations of greater sage grouse.

Biden administration officials proposed limits on development and prohibitions against mining to help protect the grouse.