Bureau Of Livestock And Mining Eliminates Public Comment On New Oil & Gas Leasing Rules

The Bureau of Land Management implemented four rules today that create more leeway for oil and gas companies wanting to drill on public lands, as required by the spending bill President Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress passed in July. But voters will not have a chance to comment on two of the rules. Lands “eligible” and “available” for oil and gas leases will now be determined using definitions laid out in the bill, as opposed to the discretion of the BLM. These new definitions include areas defined as available for oil and gas leasing in resource management plans, which can sometimes be several decades old.

Other changes require the agency to offer new acres for leasing within 18 months of a company expressing interest, and prevent the BLM from adding any new stipulations to a lease unless they are present in an existing resource management plan. Unused drilling permits now last four years, up from three, and the agency has waived the $5-per-acre nomination fee for companies submitting claims on public lands .

The BLM did not answer questions about how the agency determined these rules were “noncontroversial.”

“Removing the nomination fee will allow companies to propose vast tracts of public lands for leasing, which the BLM will now be required to offer within 18 months,” said Kate Groetzinger, communications manager for Center for Western Priorities, in a statement. Given the recent federal layoffs, “the BLM will have to shift significant resources into preparing these lease sales, effectively making the BLM a single-use agency dedicated to oil and gas management.”

EDIT

https://insideclimatenews.org/news/01082025/blm-oil-gas-rules-exempted-from-public-comment/