During his last weeks in office, President Joe Biden signed an executive order banning energy development on public lands in Nevada’s Ruby Mountains and in parts of north-central New Mexico. The move was consistent with his intent to cripple traditional energy companies. In 2019, Biden told The Associated Press, “I guarantee you. I guarantee you. We’re going to end fossil fuel.”

The Biden administration spun the ban as necessary to protect the environment. But Biden made no attempt to limit mining on those same public lands, something he surely would have done if the order represented a principled objection to disruptive or commercial activity on sensitive lands.

But Biden’s edict had a short shelf life. Last week, the Trump administration announced it will allow logging on certain national forest lands in an effort to increase domestic timber production. Tacked onto the order was a rescission of the previous administration’s decree limiting energy production in Nevada and New Mexico.

A statement from the U.S. Department of Agriculture said, “Under President Trump’s leadership, USDA is removing the burdensome Biden-era regulations that have stifled energy and mineral development to revitalize rural communities and reaffirm America’s role as a global energy powerhouse.”

It’s worth noting that the Ruby Mountains, largely located in Elko County in northeastern Nevada, contain no known oil and gas resources. But it makes little sense to arbitrarily take the development of vital natural resources off the table — which could bring jobs and revenue to nearby communities if they were discovered in the area — particularly when gold is already mined near the Ruby Mountains. Energy development can be accomplished without destroying the region’s natural beauty.

Environmental groups and Democrats — including Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto — reacted as expected. “This kind of top-down decision-making, with zero attempt to discuss or even listen to the communities impacted,” Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., told The New York Times, “is exactly what’s wrong with this administration.”

Yet recent Democratic presidents have routinely “granted protection” to wide swaths of public lands in various Western states with little input from local leaders. See Utah and the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. And it’s encouraging to see Sen. Heinrich and green groups suddenly recognize the value of rural communities and states having more authority over the federal lands in their midst.

Trump was elected after explicitly promising to unleash American energy producers in an effort to drive down prices and reduce our reliance on foreign sources. His order is a welcome respite from Biden hostility toward a vital sector of the American economy.

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