Under the Trump administration, the Interior Department has moved at a breakneck pace to expand drilling and mining by eliminating or revising policies meant to protect our land, water, and wildlife. Remarkably, in October 2017, the agency previewed its deregulatory agenda by releasing an “Energy Burdens Report,” essentially a hit list of policies compiled from input by extractive industries. Exactly two years after releasing its deregulatory roadmap, an analysis by the Center for Western Priorities finds the Interior Department has taken action on 43 of 49 recommendations, completing 33. The analysis considered recommendations for all Interior agencies, with the exception of the Bureau of Indian Affairs and Bureau of Reclamation.

Shortly after President Trump’s inauguration, the Interior Department asked industry stakeholders to identify policies that “burden the development or use of domestically produced energy resources,” particularly oil, gas, and coal. Drilling and mining interests, such as the American Petroleum Institute, ConocoPhillips, and the National Mining Association, responded eagerly with their policy wish lists. After faithfully compiling those industry requests, Interior Secretaries Ryan Zinke and David Bernhardt have used the Energy Burdens Report to give marching orders to career officials overseeing our public lands and wildlife.

The Bureau of Land Management, in charge of managing 245 million acres of public lands and 700 million acres of subsurface mineral rights, has moved forward 16 policy changes designed to increase drilling and mining on public lands. Though the Trump administration still hasn’t nominated a BLM director, the agency has eliminated rules to reduce methane leaks from drilling on public lands, rescinded regulations to make hydraulic fracturing safer and more transparent, and has begun issuing new coal leases after killing a study into the impacts of the federal coal program. Not content to limit their efforts to marquee policies, the agency has dug into handbooks and manuals, updating obscure policies to speed approvals of new wells and weaken protections for wildlife.