From the Overview:
The Trump administration initiated, but did not complete, rulemakings to overhaul both the Interior Department’s BLM and the Agriculture Department’s U.S. Forest Service. Its goal had been to weaken already weak regulations even further, but these rulemakings provide a pathway for a Biden-Harris administration to put in place badly needed improvements in the regulatory framework.
Doing so will require coordination between the Interior and Agriculture Departments. Congress has given both Departments authority to regulate hardrock mining on the lands they manage through the Federal Land Policy and Management Act (FLPMA) of 1976 and the Forest Service Organic Act of 1897. This makes crafting a single, common regulatory framework somewhat challenging but worth the effort, especially because a number of major hardrock mines, existing and proposed, involve lands managed by both agencies. The new Administration should, therefore, promptly charge its agencies with developing new final regulations for publication as soon as practicable.
