Last summer, millions of Americans rose up to defeat Senator Mike Lee's plan to sell off 3.5 million acres of public land. Hunters and anglers, climbers, veterans, and tribal nations all joined the fight.

It felt like a victory. It turned out to be a diversion.

While the country celebrated, Congress passed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, forcing open more than 200 million acres of America's public lands to industrial development: 60 times what the Lee amendment proposed selling. There were no hearings, and no debate. The law now mandates oil and gas lease sales every quarter, in some of America's wildest places. It slashes royalties, strips the managing agencies of their discretion, and narrows the public's ability to challenge any of it in court. The cleanup costs, which could reach hundreds of billions of dollars, are  ...