BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — The Trump administration has completed a review of plans to ease protections for a struggling bird species in seven states in the U.S. West, but there's little time to put them into action before President-elect Joe Biden takes office.
The ground-dwelling, chicken-sized greater sage grouse has been at the center of a long-running dispute over how much of the American West's expansive public lands should be developed.
A federal judge blocked the Trump administration in 2019 from relaxing rules imposed under the Obama administration that restricted mining, drilling and grazing across millions of acres.
That court order remains in effect with only eight days left in Trump's term.
