Termination of the Resource Management Plan Amendment for the Buffalo Field Office, Wyoming, and an Associated Environmental Assessment
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is announcing the termination of the land use planning process described in the notice of intent (NOI) published in the Federal Register on J...
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is announcing the termination of the land use planning process described in the notice of intent (NOI) published in the
Federal Register
on July 8, 2025, for the Environmental Assessment (EA) to amend the Buffalo Resource Management Plan.
DATES:
The land use planning process described in the NOI is discontinued as of the date of publication of this notice in the
Federal Register
.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Thomas Bills, Planning and Environmental Coordinator, Buffalo Field Office, telephone: (307) 684-1133; email:
tbills@blm.gov;
address: 1425 Fort Street, Buffalo, WY. Individuals in the United States who are deaf, deafblind, hard of hearing, or have a speech disability may dial 711 (TTY, TDD, or TeleBraille) to access telecommunications relay services for contacting Mr. Bills. Individuals outside the United States should use the relay services offered within their country to make international calls to the point-of-contact in the United States.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
In accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA), as well as 43 CFR 1610.2(c), the BLM on July 8, 2025, published an NOI in the
Federal Register
announcing that it planned to prepare an EA, and have a concurrent public-scoping period, on the proposed analysis (90 FR 30093). To preserve agency resources, and in consideration of subsequent legislative and Secretarial actions, the BLM is now discontinuing this planning and NEPA process.
On December 11, 2025, in accordance with the Congressional Review Act (CRA), 5 U.S.C. 801-808, the President signed a joint resolution into law disapproving the 2024 Buffalo Field Office Resource Management Plan Amendment. Public Law 119-51. A rule nullified under the CRA must be treated as though it never took effect. As such, the 2024 RMP Amendment, including the coal-allocation decision the BLM announced as a preliminary alternative in the NOI, should be treated as though it never took effect and the 2015 Buffalo Field Office Resource Management Plan, as amended in November 2019 and as otherwise amended, except as by the disapproved amendment, is now in effect for the Buffalo Planning Area.
The BLM has also maintained the 2015 Buffalo Field Office Resource Management Plan, as amended in 2019, to reflect the Secretary of the Interior's action pursuant to section 50203 of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBB) (Pub. L. 119-21 (2025)). See 90 FR 47813 (Oct. 2, 2025). The Secretary of the Interior implemented section 50203 of the OBBB by, in part, making 2,338,995 BLM-administered coal acres available for further consideration for coal leasing in the Buffalo Field Office. The acreage made available in the 2019 Buffalo Record of Decision/Approved RMP Amendment was maintained with the acres made available pursuant to section 50203 of the OBBB, resulting in an allocation of 2,614,310 BLM-administered coal acres available for further consideration for leasing.
While the BLM does not intend to issue a Proposed Plan Amendment/Final EA or a Decision Record for this planning process, it will continue to work with cooperating agencies and stakeholders in the implementation of the existing land use plan.
Use this for formal legal and research references to the published document.
91 FR 33733
Web Citation
Suggested Web Citation
Use this when citing the archival web version of the document.
“Termination of the Resource Management Plan Amendment for the Buffalo Field Office, Wyoming, and an Associated Environmental Assessment,” thefederalregister.org (June 4, 2026), https://thefederalregister.org/documents/2026-11151/termination-of-the-resource-management-plan-amendment-for-the-buffalo-field-office-wyoming-and-an-associated-environment.