Senate rolls back rule on public lands
By Gary Martin, Las Vegas Review-Journal
WASHINGTON — The Senate voted mostly along party lines Tuesday to kill a federal rule that gives a voice to the American public on the use of public lands in Western states — including 47.5 million acres in Nevada.
Republicans sought the rollback of the planning rule imposed by the Obama administration, arguing that it shifted the decision-making of use of lands in the West to bureaucrats in Washington.
Conservationists and Democrats argued it protected those lands from commercial interests.