Republicans move to lift drilling and mining restrictions in Western states

Republican lawmakers in Congress are clearing the way for President Donald Trump’s plans to expand mining and drilling on public lands by moving to eliminate energy development limits in several Western states.

House Republicans on Wednesday night voted largely along party lines to repeal land management plans adopted in the closing days of former President Joe Biden’s administration that restricted development in large areas of Alaska, Montana and North Dakota.

Biden’s goal was in part to reduce climate-warming emissions from the burning of fossil fuels extracted from federal land. Under Trump, Republicans are casting aside those aspirations as they open more taxpayer-owned land to development, hoping to create more jobs and revenue...