Interior lays out new goals in official doc: Sell public lands, potentially transfer them for oil & gas
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum in Cheyenne, Wyoming
Jacqueline Alderman/BLM via Flickr
Strategic plan comes as admin embraces permitting bill that reduces public input, boosts drilling and development
WASHINGTON D.C. (Nov. 11, 2026) - The Department of the Interior released a new Fiscal Year 2026—2030 Strategic Plan that sets radical and likely unprecedented goals including “work[ing] to decrease the size of the federal estate” by selling or giving away public lands.
The plan, which was posted online [PDF] on Nov. 10, also suggests the agency will "pursue strategic rights-of-way agreements, land exchanges and direct transfer of lands” to support oil and gas development.
The goals—especially selling public lands--mark a radical departure from previous Interior rhetoric, even within this administration. Last year, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum told reporters that selling public lands was not part of the President’s agenda. This May, now-Bureau of Land Management Director Steve Pearce said in his confirmation hearing that he didn’t “visualize” embracing large-scale public land sales as a matter of agency policy.
Making the liquidation of public lands an official goal of the department charged with protecting them would be deeply unpopular, too; polls have continually reaffirmed that Americans want to keep public lands in public hands.
Michael Carroll, director of BLM campaigns at The Wilderness Society, made the following statement about the strategic plan:
“Americans have made their position clear: Public lands should stay in public hands. But instead of safeguarding these shared places, the Department of the Interior has made selling them off an official goal. This unprecedented plan favors oil, gas, mining and development interests over ordinary people, and it threatens our shared outdoor heritage and our freedom to explore it.
While this strategic plan goes against longstanding policy and public opinion, it fits perfectly with the administration’s embrace of the permitting bill, which will enable reckless drilling, mining and data center development on our public lands at the expense of future generations.”
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