BLM Protects Outdoor Recreation with New Oil and Gas Leasing Rules
Photo credit: Katie Musial
Oil and gas leasing on public lands has a sizeable effect on outdoor recreation, through its effects on climate, but also its direct effects on recreation resources. Today, the Bureau of Land Management released a new final rule updating its oil and gas leasing system to provide a fairer return to taxpayers and, importantly, reduce conflict with other resource values, including outdoor recreation.
Outdoor Alliance has been monitoring and responding to proposed oil and gas lease sales since 2018. During that time, we’ve highlighted 95 parcels with more than 150,000 acres of public land with outdoor recreation resources that have been made available for oil and gas lease. Responding to these proposals has often been challenging because of very short comment periods, particularly during the previous administration, a problem that the new rules will help to address.
Particularly during the previous administration, there were high-profile conflicts between proposed development and outdoor recreation, including a proposed lease sale on the famed Slickrock mountain bike trail in Utah. Outdoor Alliance has supported BLM in reforming its oil and gas leasing practices, including sharing by a policy report with ideas about balancing conservation and recreation with leases.
While it is essential for climate goals that our country move away from oil and gas leasing, particularly on public lands and waters, the BLM is required to offer leases through the Mineral Leasing Act of 1920, the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 (FLPMA), and the Inflation Reduction Act (which requires minimum leasing levels in order to also pursue renewable energy development).
Today, the BLM released its final oil and gas reform rule that seeks to minimize conflict between proposed oil and gas leases and other conservation and outdoor recreation priorities. Outdoor Alliance responded to the rule alongside Outdoor Industry Association, Public Lands Solutions, and The Conservation Alliance. You can read that letter here.
“Oil and gas leasing on public lands and waters harms outdoor recreation, through its impact on the climate, but also through the direct effects of injudiciously sited projects,” said Louis Geltman, Outdoor Alliance’s Vice President for Policy and Government Relations. “Since 2018, Outdoor Alliance has documented more than 95 specific proposed leases with recreation conflicts, covering more than 150,000 acres of public land. BLM’s updated oil and gas regulations will go a long way towards addressing this problem through preference criteria that help steer development away from important recreation areas. We are thrilled to see these final rules and applaud the leadership of the Biden administration and the Bureau of Land Management.”
The final rule has three significant aspects to better protect outdoor recreation:
1. Improving “preference criteria” for leases: the new rule will directly screen proposed lease sales for outdoor recreation conflicts and giving preference to lease lands that do not have recreation and other important uses or resources.
2. Reducing “speculative leasing”: Historically, oil and gas leases have been cheap, and developers have not been required to show any evidence that the land they plan to lease has potential for oil and gas development. As a result, developers have been able to lease (and effectively prevent conservation or recreation protections) for very little cost. The new rules support increased royalty rates, rental rates, and a new lease nomination fee, which will deter developers from leasing lands that don’t have development potential.
3. Protecting communities from pollution: the rule proposes increases to oil and gas lease bond amounts that reflect inflation and are sufficient to cover remediation costs and address the all-to-common practice of bankrupt operators who leave abandoned wells to taxpayers to pay for clean-up costs.
These reforms are a big step forward, but unfortunately, they already have a target on their back from some members of Congress. Last month, as a part of its “energy week,” the House voted to block BLM from finalizing the rule through a bill sponsored by Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO). While that bill won’t go anywhere in the Senate this Congress, it’s important to write your members of Congress and express your support for reforming oil and gas leasing on public lands.