The "Big Beautiful Bill Act” fundamentally redefines the relationship between Americans and their shared public lands. The bill creates a system where industry interests are prioritized, environmental safeguards are bypassed, and the voices of Coloradans — and the expertise of our public land managers — are silenced.

This is about taking the public out of public lands. It boils down to fast-tracking development and paving the way for industry priorities by cutting you out of decisions that impact your public lands, your communities, and your futures.

It’s a whole lot of bad, but that’s what we’re here for. Here’s what you should keep your eye on:

1. The bill would sell off up to 1.2 million acres of national public lands. After bipartisan backlash, the architect of this proposal — Senator Mike Lee of Utah — revised his plan. The new version excludes Forest Service lands but still targets Bureau of Land Management lands within 5 miles of a “population zone,” selling them off without consulting the American people.
    

2. The bill catastrophically cuts funding to federal agencies like the National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management, and U.S. Forest Service. These are the agencies who steward our most iconic lands, mitigate and fight wildfires, and care for our trails, campgrounds, and access points. 
   

3. The bill favors private companies at the expense of public input.
   

• The bill forces the Bureau of Land Management to lease any parcel of public lands nominated by oil and gas companies, regardless of public concerns. More than 200 million acres of public lands are eligible for leasing, or 81% of public lands.
  

• The bill changes the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) into a hollowed-out box checking exercise. NEPA is a bedrock environmental law, designed to ensure scientific rigor and public input. But under the bill, companies would be able to pay for an expedited review process that devalues analysis oenvironmental and human health impacts and reduces public participation.
  

4. The bill’s heavy emphasis on expediting oil and gas development, mining, and timber extraction would cause long-term damage to Colorado’s climate.
   

   • The bill delays the implementation of a methane fee, allowing oil and gas producers to continue emitting this dangerous pollutant.
     

   • The bill mandates aggressive targets for resource extraction, while undermining oversight and the public’s ability to weigh in. 
     

5. The bill fails to get a good deal for Coloradans.
   

   • The bill reduces the royalty rates that oil and gas companies who extract public resources from public lands pay from 16.67% to 12.5%. Despite slashing budgets and firing thousands of public employees to save money, this single provision would cause nearly $5 billion in lost revenue over the next ten years, followed by an average of $2 billion lost per year thereafter.