11/18/25
WGA highlights states’ important role in land use plans in letter to Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee
In correspondence with the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, WGA shared bipartisan policy recommendations ahead of the Committee’s hearing to Examine the BLM Land Use Planning Process Under FLPMA. The November 18 letter, signed by WGA Executive Director Jack Waldorf, articulates Western Governors’ bipartisan vision for a more effective and functional relationship between states and federal offices on land use plans. "States are co-sovereigns with the federal government and federal agencies must engage in consultation with states on a government-to-government basis,” reads the letter. “As the Committee considers how the Bureau of Land Management land use planning process under FLPMA affects permitting for energy, mining, grazing, and infrastructure projects on public lands, I urge the Committee to consider the important role state-federal collaboration has in federal land use and permitting processes and to maintain and expand opportunities for states and localities to have a substantive role in federal land use decision-making processes.” Read the full correspondence for further details.