It’s hard to view the Biden administration’s last-minute moves to withdraw 264,000 acres of federal land in Nevada’s Ruby Mountains from oil, gas, and geothermal development as anything but an exercise in obstruction. This isn’t about protecting the environment—it’s about tying the hands of an incoming administration poised to reverse disastrous climate policies. In the waning days of Biden’s presidency—or more accurately, in the waning days of an administration largely piloted by climate-obsessed staffers—the White House has ensured that its progressive priorities will remain legally sticky, even as the reins of power shift to a more rational energy policy.
The Biden administration’s gambit, which proposes a 20-year withdrawal of these lands from leasing, conveniently includes a two-year temporary leasing prohibition while the process meanders through the public comment phase. This puts the lands off-limits almost immediately, erecting a bureaucratic wall for any incoming administration. Yet, if there’s one thing the past few decades of governance have taught us, it’s that no regulation or policy is immune to challenge when approached with the right mix of legal acumen and political will.
The Real Motive: Entrenchment by Design
This isn’t just about protecting the Ruby Mountains. After all, even environmentalists admit there are no known oil reserves in the area, with some lamenting that the “urgent threat” is gold mining—an industry unaffected by this withdrawal. Instead, this is the latest chapter in a broader strategy by climate warriors to create legal and procedural tripwires to stymie any rollback of their agenda. By initiating the withdrawal just weeks before the administration changes hands, they seek to cloak their decisions in the shroud of legality, betting on the complexities of the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) and potential lawsuits to discourage or delay reversal.
To their credit, it’s a savvy play. By using the machinery of government to amplify their ideological priorities, they’ve thrown down a gauntlet that the next administration will need to pick up carefully if it intends to return sanity to federal energy policy.
What Can Be Done? An Action Plan for Reversal
For the incoming administration, time is of the essence. Fortunately, this particular gambit, while troublesome, is far from insurmountable. Since the withdrawal is still within the public comment period when new agency leadership takes over, there are straightforward pathways to undoing this politically motivated maneuver. Here’s how:
1. Decline to Finalize the Rule
The easiest way to deal with this proposed withdrawal is simply to let it die on the vine. Under the APA, the incoming leaders of the relevant agencies—likely the Department of the Interior—have the discretion to review all public comments and decide whether or not to move forward. The Trump administration can simply conclude that comments opposing the withdrawal carry more weight and opt not to finalize the rule.
This approach avoids the procedural complexity of undoing a finalized withdrawal and sidesteps the two-year temporary prohibition. Once the rule is abandoned, the lands revert to their previous status, making oil, gas, and geothermal leasing immediately available.
2. Build a Strong, Reasoned Justification
If environmental groups or other stakeholders attempt to sue over the decision to abandon the rule, the administration must be prepared to defend its actions. Courts demand a “reasoned explanation” for any policy shift, meaning the administration must clearly articulate why the proposed withdrawal is unnecessary or harmful. The rationale could include:
- The absence of known oil reserves, rendering the withdrawal pointless as a practical matter.
- The economic harm to local communities, particularly in terms of lost opportunities for geothermal energy development.
- The narrow focus on oil and gas, while leaving mining activities untouched, exposing the withdrawal as arbitrary.
3. Rescind the Temporary Withdrawal
The Biden administration’s two-year leasing prohibition, implemented while the rule is under consideration, is another hurdle that the Trump administration could tackle directly. By issuing an executive order or agency memorandum, the new leadership can cancel the temporary freeze and restart leasing processes immediately. This might provoke legal challenges, but with sound reasoning and proper documentation, such an action is likely defensible.
Time to Call Out the Farce
What’s particularly galling about this whole episode is the blatant bad faith on display. The Ruby Mountains, as noted by the U.S. Forest Service in 2019, are unsuitable for oil and gas development, and conservationists themselves acknowledge there’s no viable oil to be found. The real aim here is to signal virtue to environmentalist allies while throwing procedural roadblocks in front of an administration determined to restore energy independence. The theater kids running this show are less interested in real-world outcomes than in satisfying their ideological fan base.
Conclusion: Undoing the Damage
The Biden administration’s Ruby Mountains withdrawal is a textbook example of using regulatory theatrics to pursue political goals under the guise of conservation. It’s not about protecting lands or species—it’s about binding the hands of future leaders with red tape and legal complexity. Fortunately, the incoming Trump administration has tools at its disposal to reverse course quickly and effectively.
By refusing to finalize the rule, rescinding the temporary freeze, and articulating a clear defense of its decisions, the Trump administration can ensure that America’s energy future isn’t held hostage to environmentalist dogma. It’s time to call out these games for what they are: an ideologically driven attempt to sabotage responsible energy policy. The new administration has the opportunity—and the obligation—to restore common sense to federal land management, putting the needs of the American people ahead of political theater.
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There is also another objective. That is, assuming the Trump administration fights it, to give the Democrats running in the next election something else to blame on the Republicans.
Trump doesn’t have to fight it … after he’s sworn in, he has every bit as much power to unmake an executive action as any prior President has to make the executive action.
Presidents of opposing parties do this all the time, in fact every time. Biden did it, Trump did it, Obama did it, Bush 43 did it, etc. etc. etc.
Yes, if Biden takes an Executive Action, Trump can take the opposite Executive Action.
I think we can count of the Democrats to be as obstructive of Trump and his policies as they were after Trump won in 2016.
Nothing has changed for the radical Democrats. Trump’s election is just a minor setback to their goal of Democrats gaining political power and control in the United States in perpetuity.
The radical Democrats like a One-Party political system, with them running the Show, of course.
So don’t expect the Democrats to moderate their behavior just because Trump won the popular vote. Their agenda is to disrupt and destroy anything that prevents them from gaining/regaining political power, and that’s what they will continue to do.
Radical Democrats are thinking long-term. Republicans should think about the future, too, and think about how to prevent the Democrats from gaining dictatorial powers over American citizens.
The Democrats were getting close to getting their dictatorial powers, except Trump got elected, and now the ballgame has changed for a little while. We can hope that this change is permanent and the American people see the Democrats for the Dangerous Radicals they really are, and continue to vote them out of office.
Executive orders are horribly overused. Their scope, particularly regarding domestic policies, should be drastically curtailed. Congress, as poor as it is, should be making laws, not presidents.
Trump should reverse this on Day 1 with one sentence and one signature, calling out Biden’s obstructionist policies.
Democrats enjoy locking up natural resources. Clinton locked up a huge part of Utah’s coal reserves in 1996 by declaring the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument with the stroke of a pen. The photo op for that signing was NOT in Utah, but at the Grand Canyon, which looked more dramatic. Remember how at the last minute before the ceremony some pine trees blocked the camera’s view of the canyon? They bulldozed the trees into the canyon in just a few minutes.
I missed that bit of history. 🤔
But it was not as bad as the Dinosaur Tracks museum in Arizona. The government let out a contract to build a protective structure over the dinosaur tracks. The contractor jack hammered up the rock, built the building, and recreated the dinosaur tracks in concrete from molds of the original.
Why would the Dinosaur Tracks require a protective structure?
According to Evolutionary Dogma, those tracks have been exposed to millions of years of weather and Extinction Level Meteor Impacts.
That was an interesting move, since it led to greater importation of less clean coal from Indonesia and Clinton’s buddy James Riady, and also since the greatest environmental outcry that year was the redwood forests of California and not the relatively obscure Staircase/ Escalante.
How exactly does prohibiting oil and gas exploration in an area “unsuitable for oil and gas development”, and which “conservationists themselves acknowledge there’s no viable oil to be found” sabotage America’s energy future? Especially if you can dig it all up in search of gold.
Every camel that ever entered a tent, started by getting its nose into the tent.
You misspelled kalama.
You misspelt Kalamity
Biden is cognitively impaired. Banning oil and gas exploration where there isn’t any proves it yet again.
It made perfect sense for one beholden to China, in addition to just being anti-American.
He “might” have signed it.. that doesn’t mean he has any cognition of what he actually signed.
Yeah, but Biden isn’t running the show now. One or more of his underlings are pushing this policy.
Sign this, Mr. President.
OK.
Which makes me wonder how valid are Executive Orders when the Executive whose signature is attached has no understanding whatsoever of the providence of the EO nor the contents.
He’s not driving the car, he never really was. It’s his “progressive” handlers.
Trump should issue executive orders undoing the Carter era rules on environmental impact studies, especially those allowing for multiple rounds of objections to a project.
Carter’s mischief should die with him.
All enviro impact studies should have a time limit.
All enviro impact studies should be based on scientific evidence.
Nevada’s Ruby Mountains, and the extension into the East Humboldt Range, is a classic example of a Metamorphic Core Complex. Think of a thin crust, under extension, and a strong heat flow event, and the crust is melted and forms a blister, albeit elongate north and south. The heat event was magmatism during the Eocene, around 40 million years ago, the magmatism being produced by an accelerated plate convergence and roll-over subduction event. Three interesting aspects of this event are: 1. the blister inflation drags up deeper crust, and the oldest rocks in Nevada, more than 700 million years age, are at Angel Lake in the East Humboldt Range, 2. the heat flow is strong and sustained, ergo, any oil potential is either thermally converted to bitumen or flashed into gas and expelled, and 3. all of this makes gold deposits, especially on the flanks where receptive stratigraphy is preserved. The oil discovery potential is as close to zero as possible. So, what is this about? Something in the usual giving environmentalists another hammer to do their thing? Some hidden trade deal? No idea.
If the likelihood of oil and gas are effectively ruled out, it must have something to do with geothermal – you did mention crustal heat flow and maybe some residual still exists. Any granites nearby?
Geothermal is mostly a green non-starter fantasy due to the inherent heat exchanger dissolved minerals scaling problem. A few exceptions like Iceland, where reasonably fresh near surface water contacts near surface magma.
I agree Rud – just trying to second-guess why this lock-out gambit is happening.
The photo of Barrick’s Ruby Hill gold mine heading the article is nowhere near the Ruby Mountains.
Blame AP
I just assume that any stock photo has zero to do with the article and if not now, surely in the future to avoid paying royalties will be AI generated.
Why not let Donald Trump simply withdraw the act? It was not specifically enacted in law, and any act accomplished only with a President’s signature can be withdrawn by a later President.
Pretty sure that this is precisely what Trump and his transition team are already setting the table for come January 20 and the weeks thereafter.
Duane, I hope they are thinking even bigger than only countering with executive orders. The Indian Contract Law of 1872 is the standard for signing anything “official”, and it requires ability to understand the document to be signed and also the personal consequences of the signing. There were several events in 2024 that show the best definition of cognitive decline, but the Biden withdrawal on July 21 is the key. Everything President Biden signed after that is null and void.
Biden should have been administered the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) some years ago. Only takes about 15 minutes, at worst about 20. ‘Perfect’ is 30–Trump’s score. Mild cognitive impairment is below 26 (some lit says below 25), and moderate cognitive impairment is below 17. Severe impairment is below 10. My significant other suffered increasing impairment before she passed earlier this year of acute pneumonia. I sat with her thru 4 assessments in 5 years—25, 22, 20, 16. Know MoCA by heart.
Based on Biden’s debate performance, he would have scored around a 15. Would have surely flunked the connect numbered dots and clock face time spatial orientations (getting frequently lost on stage was not a good look), probably would have passed animal recognition and count backwards by 7s, and probably would have flunked spoken word recall.
Sorry to hear about your significant other, Rud. My mother, worked as a bank teller her whole working life, went downward into the single digits. However, to the amusement of staff, if you dumped a pile of coins in front of her she could count it out really fast.
Long term solutions require Congressional lawmaking, correct. But getting bills through Congress takes a lot of time, a lot of wheeling and dealing, and the GOP is going to have to bite the bullet and reform the filibuster rule so that 60 Senate votes are not required for any legislation, which is a near impossibility in this era of evenly divided voters.
But in the meantime, travesties like the one described by this post need to be terminated immediately by Trump, pending the longer term legislative remedies.
This all seems silly to me. I did some mineral exploration work in the Ruby Mountains in mid 2024. There’s some Paleozoic limestones, and the Paleozoic Cottonwood River probably ran though the southern end, but its mostly uplifted and broken limestone, I don’t know of any likely reservoirs or traps, there’s unlikely to be any hydrocarbons, most of what I saw was granites. I don’t know about geo-thermal, Nevada has pretty good geo-thermal resources all over.
Its like the current administration is all to happy to jump on the bandwagon that they’re going to stop efforts to industrialize Pluto for environmental preservation.
Sounds like a good place to search for Gold’s abiotic oil. /s
Yet another example of bad government doing what it does best, screwing everything up. Another clear example of why government needs to be cut back drastically. A good start would be to withhold all grant making authority and funds from departments. Another would be to withdraw all rule/law making authority from all departments, that means all enforcement also. Another would be review of all rules, regulation and so on created in the last 50 years. By that I mean clear and provable documentation justifying all rules and regulations created. Our government is out of control we can’t sit on our backside and hope they self correct. They won’t.
The United States will not make progress until the last lawyer is strangled with the entrails of the last environmentalist.
Sooo true. That should be on a shirt.👍
Determine if this is in America’s best interest. If not fire those involved.
The Biden administration is the Hasan K. Akbar of the executive branch.
I’m late to this comment section, but here’s the answer: LITHIUM. Super important stuff these days.
Some reports say Ruby Mountain has the potential to be the largest single deposit in the world.
China’s not happy about this solely American source of a strategically important rare earth mineral.
Biden is China’s puppet. China instructs Puppet to block US’s new lithium source to preserve China’s attempt at monopoly (or at least dominance).
Yeah, I’m guessing about China’s role, but we now know weirder things have happened since you-know-who’s been in charge. Oh, wait . . . who’s been in charge? Who wrote up this EO?
None of this is about the climate or the environment.