SWEETWATER COUNTY — The Sweetwater County Board of County Commissioners approved a letter that supports the rescission of 2024 Department of the Interior rule giving conservation a multi-use designation in land management plans.

The letter was approved unanimously by the commissioners.

Director of Land Use Eric Bingham said the 2024 rule allowed groups to apply for conservation easements on public lands, which he described as problematic as it could avoid the National Environmental Policy Act process. He said the issue came up in the Rock Springs Resource Management Plan, saying he saw a lot of land blocked off for conservation purposes that shut down potential oil and gas development. Bingham said both he and Commissioner Taylor Jones reached out to Wyoming’s federal delegation to have the rule rescinded.

“We are very excited to see the Department of the Interior did publish on the Federal Register to rescind this rule,” Bingham said.

The letter the country drafted supports the rescinding of that rule. He said orders issued by President Trump and Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum have also rescinded the Biden-era conservation rule in favor of increasing mining and energy production on public lands. 

“It feels like we’ve written a hundred of these letters and they all say the same thing, just in different paragraphical form,” Chairman Keaton West said.