The federal government is constantly addressing the broad and diverse array of public lands and natural resource issues. Today, it is more important than ever. Issues range from the extraction of natural resources to facilitating land exchanges between the federal government and other property owners. These public policy challenges most often occur in the Western United States, which contains some of the largest, most valuable reserves of oil, gas, coal, minerals and renewable resources on earth. 

One of the controversial public policy issues involves the withdrawal of more than one million acres of public lands from new uranium mining claims in the Grand Canyon. Other measures would create a national strategy for the development of rare earth, strategic and critical minerals in the United States. There have also been several initiatives in Congress and the Executive Branch agencies to promote the development of renewable energy resources on public lands. Finally, the legal principle of eminent domain and the issues surrounding right-of-way permits for energy infrastructure through public lands are hotly contested.  

At FaegreBD Consulting, our energy & environment team works to ensure that legislative and regulatory efforts to address public lands issues recognize the objectives and needs of our clients. We have represented clients on public lands issues before Members of Congress, key Congressional committees, the U.S. Department of Interior, Bureau of Land Management, and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Our advocacy services assist clients through formulation and execution of Congressional and regulatory strategies, including writing core messages and materials, as well as identifying policymaking champions to help achieve their federal affairs goals.

Our bipartisan team has a unique and strong background in federal public lands issues. We have a long history of working with both the House Committee on Natural Resources and the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, as well as the House and Senate Appropriations Committees.

Recent examples of our experience on public lands and natural resource issues include:

• Working on an interstate, multi-agency land exchange. This initiative entailed researching precedent on land exchanges, facilitating introductions between the landowner and Members of Congress, and drafting a legislative proposal to accomplish the land exchange. 
• Collaborating with the White House Office of Management and Budget, National Park Service, Federal Transit Administration, General Services Administration, U.S. Department of Agriculture, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and multiple committees of Congress. This project ultimately resulted in 3,200 acres being revitalized.
• Analyzing and synthesizing Bureau of Land Management policy on the regulation of hydraulic fracturing on federal lands.
• Monitoring regulatory and legal issues surrounding the development of coal resources on federal lands.