It's Not Just Slickrock
Back in February, the outdoor community helped save Slickrock and Sand Flats campground from oil and gas development after the BLM announced that it was planning to lease off land in and around these resources.
On the surface, this was a success story about civic engagement. Outdoor Alliance and our partners educated the outdoor community, you advocated for the BLM to defer parcels from its June lease sale, and decision makers listened. The bigger story, however, is that the BLM is under enormous pressure to offer up millions of acres for oil and gas development without concern for other resource values, like recreation. When areas are leased for oil and gas development, even if there’s a relatively low likelihood of actual development, it makes it much harder to enact long-term protections, and it can thwart community efforts to plan for sustainable recreation. Near Moab, Utah, the Slickrock trail and Sand Flats campground areas have low potential for oil and gas development and should have never been considered for leasing. While these important recreation assets may have been spared, the bigger story is that even on lands with low potential for development, recreation and other assets are not being considered when BLM offers up land for lease.
And right now, despite massive slowdowns to most government operations due to the coronavirus, decreased oil demand globally, and a glut of oil and gas supply, the BLM is continuing to push forward with oil and gas lease sales.
How did we get here? Under the administration’s “Energy Dominance” agenda, which encourages energy development on public lands, the BLM is offering almost any parcel nominated by industry on lands that are considered “open” under drilling-friendly resource management plans. Our GIS team has been monitoring lease sales that could affect outdoor recreation and protesting lease sale parcels that overlap with recreation. But the process is a bit like whac-a-mole: as soon as we’ve protected one parcel, six more are on the chopping block.
Where do we go from here? Two bills look to reform some of the issues with current oil and gas leasing:
Senator Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV) introduced the “End Speculative Oil and Gas Leasing Act of 2020” in January to limit oil and gas leasing on public lands that have low or no energy potential for development. It would require the BLM to study a parcel’s potential for mineral development and end the practice of leasing lands with a low potential for development to speculators. Right now, developers can nominate parcels on BLM land, often without knowing whether they actually have oil and gas potential. Speculators are able to buy these leases, sometimes at less than $2 per acre, and once purchased, it is difficult to protect these lands later. On public lands with low or no mineral potential, Sen. Cortez Masto’s bill would put the focus back on other resource values, like outdoor recreation and wildlife habitat preservation. If you need a quick refresher on speculative leasing, check out our blog here.
Rep. Mike Levin (D-CA)’s proposal, H.R. 3225, the “Restoring Community Input and Public Protections in Oil and Gas Leasing Act,” would lengthen public comment periods and restore the availability of Master Leasing Plans, a policy tool eliminated by the Trump Administration that formerly helped proactively plan and balance energy development with other uses on public lands. Outdoor Alliance systematically screens lease sales for conflicts with known recreational resources using GIS, but this process is made difficult because of tight comment windows—sometimes as short as 10 days—and an unwieldy comment process that involves submitting comments to differing field offices. These short windows and convoluted processes seem, at times, designed to minimize or eliminate opportunities for genuine public engagement, and H.R. 3225 would appropriately space lease sales and ensure opportunities for meaningful review. You can read our full comment letter on the bill right here.
Both bills offer ways to prevent some of the damage from the type of recent speculative leasing the administration has encouraged and could protect areas with strong recreation values and low mineral potential, like the Sand Flats Recreation Area, from being leased.
You can share your support for the bills by writing your congresscritters using the tool below. With the administration accelerating oil and gas leasing despite a national emergency, now is an important time to share your concerns with your elected officials.
To read more about oil and gas leasing, check out prior posts here and here.