Republican governors intensify resistance to plan to sell land leases for conservation

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican governors are pushing back against a proposal by the Biden administration to put conservation on equal footing with industry on vast government-owned lands. On Thursday, South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem testified before the U.S. House Committee on Natural Resources in favor of a bill that would require the Bureau of Land Management to withdraw the proposal, saying it would cause “deep devastation.” The White House’s plan would allow conservationists and others to lease federally owned land to restore it, much the same way oil companies buy leases to drill and ranchers pay to graze cattle. The top Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee, Rep. Raul Grijalva of Arizona, said the proposal was “long overdue.”