That of President Joe Biden The U.S. administration on Friday proposed tougher restrictions on oil, solar and wind energy development on more than 6,500 square miles of federal lands in the western United States to protect a declining bird species.

However, these changes are unlikely to persist. President-elect Donald Trump.

ADMINISTRATOR BIDEN EXAMINES NEW MEASURES TO PROTECT BIRD SPECIES

Sage grouse – chicken-sized birds known for their elaborate mating ritual – were once found across much of the western United States. Their numbers have fallen in recent decades due to energy exploration, wildfires, disease and other pressures.

A 2015 agreement under the Obama administration kept the birds off the endangered species list, placing limits on where and when development could take place across their 270,000 range. square miles.

Now, Interior Ministry officials want to strengthen protections even further. Their plan would close loopholes that allowed development in areas considered crucial to the bird’s long-term survival. New solar and wind projects would be excluded, and oil and gas exploration could only take place from drilling platforms outside protected areas.

In this May 9, 2008, file photo, male sage grouse fight for the attention of females southwest of Rawlins, Wyo. (Jerret Raffety/The Rawlins Daily Times via AP)

Trump has pushed to open more public lands to energy development, in line with his “drill baby drill” mantra. During his first administration, officials tried to roll back Obama-era sage grouse protections, but they were blocked in court.

Interior Secretary Deb Haaland said Friday’s proposal would boost the sage grouse while still allowing development to continue on some government lands. She said the plan was based on the best science to protect the bird.

“For too long, a false choice has been presented in land management that pits development against conservation,” Haaland said in a statement.

However, the agency’s attempt to find common ground failed with environmentalists, industry representatives and Republican elected officials.

Most of the land in question — about 4,700 square miles — is in Nevada and California, according to government documents. Affected parcels are also in Wyoming, Oregon, Idaho, Colorado, Montana and the Dakotas.

Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon lamented what he called the administration’s “extreme indifference” to his state. The Republican governor said new levels of federal regulation would hamper practical solutions for grouse.

“We’ve shown how to successfully manage this bird and do it in a way that allows for protection of core habitat alongside responsible development,” Gordon said.

Environmentalists, meanwhile, said authorities missed an opportunity to put in place meaningful protections that could halt the black grouse’s slow spiral of extinction. They noted that fault lines allowing development would remain in place on nearly 50,000 square miles of public lands.

“It’s a death by the thousands,” said Greta Anderson of the Western Watersheds Project, an environmental group involved in previous sage-grouse lawsuits. “The Biden administration could have stopped the cuts, but they didn’t. Just because it’s less bad doesn’t mean it’s not bad.”

Federal officials predicted only minimal economic impacts. They said energy companies already avoid sage-grouse habitat, where there are limits on when and where work can be done near breeding areas. These companies may still find opportunities on other public lands, officials said.

This was disputed by a representative of the energy industry. Kathleen Sgamma of the Western Energy Alliance said the Biden administration already has limited rentals in sage-grouse habitat.

“So they deny access and then say companies are avoiding them anyway,” Sgamma said. “It’s disingenuous.”

The Interior Ministry’s Bureau of Land Management will accept protests against the proposal from Friday until December 9. Final decisions on changes to the agency’s land management plans will be made once the protests are resolved.

A related proposal to help the sage grouse would block new mining projects for 20 years across more than 15,625 square miles in Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah and Wyoming. This proposal was part of the 2015 Obama-era protections. It was struck down under Trump and then reinstated by a court.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

An analysis of the mining ban will be published by the end of the year, according to the Interior Ministry.

Sage grouse once numbered in the millions in all or parts of 11 Western states. The population has fallen 65% since 1986, according to government scientists.