Biden's public lands director named to lead environmental group
A senior official in President Joe Biden’s administration who oversaw its contentious efforts to address climate change by curbing drilling and mining on federal lands has been named the next president of a prominent environmental group
BILLINGS, Mont. — A senior official in President Joe Biden's administration who oversaw its contentious efforts to address climate change by curbing oil drilling and coal mining on federal lands while expanding renewable power was named Tuesday as the next president of a prominent environmental group.
U.S. Bureau of Land Management Director Tracy Stone-Manning will become president of The Wilderness Society effective next February, the Washington, D.C.-based group announced.
The land bureau shifted sharply away from fossil fuel extraction during her tenure, including two decisions released Tuesday that end new federal coal sales from the nation's most productive reserves of the fuel along the Wyoming-Montana border.
Stone-Manning's 2021 nomination by Biden was bitterly opposed by Republicans who labeled her an “eco-terrorist” over her past ties with environmental extremists. Senate Democrats pushed through her confirmation on a party-line vote.
The land bureau has jurisdiction over almost a quarter-billion acres (100 million hectares) of land, primarily in western states, that is used for oil exploration, mining, livestock grazing, recreation and other purposes.
Under Stone-Manning the bureau sharply reduced oil and gas lease sales and raised royalty rates that companies must pay to extract the fuel. It also issued a rule elevating the importance of conservation, by making it a “use” of public lands on par with drilling or grazing.
That marked a sharp departure from the land bureau's
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