Though little evidence exists suggesting northeast Nevada’s Ruby Mountains hold potential for oil production, the Trump administration canceled a Biden-era effort to rule out new leases there for 20 years.

It had only been about three months since protections were proposed when President Donald Trump issued Executive Order 14154. The order directed his newly minted agency heads to identify and reverse any decisions preventing the development of oil, natural gas, coal, hydropower, biofuels, critical minerals or nuclear energy.

A spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the agency that manages the U.S. Forest Service, said canceling the federal environmental review of the Ruby Mountains withdrawal was meant to align with those priorities.

“Under President Trump’s leadership, USDA is removing the burdensome Biden-era regulations that have stifled energy and mineral development to revitalize rural communities and reaffirm America’s role as a global energy powerhouse,” a statement said.

Now, as they have been for years, prospectors are free to establish oil, gas or geothermal leases in the mountain range commonly referred to as the “Swiss Alps of Nevada.”

U.S. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., expressed her dismay at the Trump administration’s decision. Her office said in a statement to the Las Vegas Review-Journal that the senator plans to reintroduce the Ruby Mountains Protection Act — a bill she has pushed since 2019 that would rule out oil and gas speculation in the area permanently.

“The Rubies have extremely low energy potential, but they’re critical to our local tourism economy,” Cortez Masto wrote on X. “I will not stop fighting to defend the Ruby Mountains.”

Gold remains bigger threat to some

The mountain range is in Elko and White Pine counties and sits on the ancestral lands of the Te-Moak Tribe of Western Shoshone.

It’s a popular tourist destination: The untouched range is estimated to bring about $165 million annually in tourism revenue to Elko County. Nearby residents rallied a county planning board to shoot down a ski resort proposal for the area last year.

Some of Nevada’s environmental advocates decried the USDA’s decision early this week.

“Nevadans have said loud and clear that they want the Ruby Mountains protected,” said Scott Lake, a staff attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity. “The Trump administration is willing to steamroll local communities and sacrifice the state’s irreplaceable biodiversity for the sake of oil and mining industry profits.”

Aside from drilling, the more present threat, Lake and others argue, is gold mining. The price of gold is at an all-time high since the Trump administration announced its tariffs and talks of a recession have ensued.

South of the Ruby Mountains is the Bald Mountain Mine, an open-pit gold mine that was granted an almost 3,500-acre expansion in August by the Biden administration.

Olivia Tanager, director of the Nevada Tiyoabe chapter of the Sierra Club, said the Trump administration’s move was disappointing, and she worries that the administration is providing too many incentives promoting oil and gas production.

“We’re committed to protecting the Rubies, but I would encourage others to take gold as a more serious threat than oil and gas,” Tanager said in an interview Tuesday.

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