Interior Secretary Issues New Guidlines for Oil and Gas Leases

01.06.2010 by Elizabeth Ziegler

Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar

(KCPW News) Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar released new guidelines today for oil and gas leasing on public lands.  They require a more thorough review before the Bureau of Land Management approves leases for energy development. Salazar says the guidelines will create a more balanced approach than the Bush administration’s “headlong rush” to lease land for energy development.

“In the past, our public lands were the essential candy store of the oil and gas industry,” Salazar says. “Walk in and take whatever they wanted. And that’s not the way it ought to be done. We ought to be involved, making sure that development is occurring in the right places and at the right time, with the appropriate protections.”

Under the new rules, the BLM will take more time to analyze and personally visit sites proposed for oil and gas leasing, and will give priority to leases within areas that are already developed. The action also requires the BLM to consider issues like whether development will impair protected species, cultural resources or human health and safety before fast-tracking a proposal.

BLM Director Bob Abbey says even though the energy development process will be slowed down, it will lead to fewer lawsuits.

“In 2008, of all the parcels offered up for leases, 40 percent were protested. So very few of those actually ended up being leased where production could occur,” Abbey says. “We believe through a more thorough and diligent review, that the areas that we will be offering for lease, for the most part, will be leased and hopefully will be developed.”

However, energy groups like the Denver-based International Petroleum Association of Mountain States say the new guidelines will delay the leasing process and drive energy companies out of the West.