Environmental Groups React to Final Rule for Oil and Gas Leasing on Federal Lands

WASHINGTON – The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) today finalized its updated rule governing oil and gas leasing and permitting on federal lands. The rules will apply to the hundreds of millions of acres of public lands that remain open to oil and gas development. 

Today’s final rule represents the end of a decades-long effort to rework how the BLM oversees leasing and permitting of oil and gas activities on federally managed land. Together with new rules governing methane waste from the BLM and methane emissions from the Environmental Protection Agency, today’s rule addresses numerous long-standing financial handouts enjoyed for decades by the fossil fuel industry.

Environmental groups issued the following comments in reaction to the proposed rule:

“BLM’s final rule is a big step forward for the woefully outdated oil and gas program on public lands. This program has long prioritized fossil fuel companies’ profits at the expense of our communities’ air, water and health, and the Biden administration is injecting some much-needed balance into public lands management,” said Jamie Williams, president of The Wilderness Society. “By finalizing the Oil and Gas Rule, the administration is securing one of several agency efforts that, together, can make public lands part of the solution to our biggest conservation and climate challenges. Public lands and the communities that love them got a win today.”

“For far too long, oil and gas companies have been profiting off of giveaways to drill on our public lands. This rule will finally curtail some of these wasteful handouts to the fossil fuel industry,” said Josh Axelrod, senior policy advocate with the NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council). “Communities, conservationists, and taxpayer advocates have been demanding many of these changes for decades, and it’s great news that the Biden administration is acting on this today."

“This new rule should be regarded as a long overdue win for communities and the environment.  For decades, taxpayers have been left to foot the bill for cleaning up toxic messes left behind by oil companies across the West, while some of the same companies made record profits,” said Earthjustice attorney Mike Freeman. “BLM also has tolerated rampant speculation on leases that industry only purchased to pad its books and attract investors while preventing those lands from being protected for other uses. On top of this, oil and gas drilling on public lands accelerates the climate crisis and results in oil spills and threats to drinking water. The Biden administration’s Oil and Gas Rule is an important step toward correcting these long-standing problems and holding oil and gas companies accountable.  We look forward to seeing BLM’s next steps toward tackling the climate impacts of federal oil and gas drilling.”  

“For decades, Big Oil has been exploiting our public lands for oil and gas drilling and sticking all of us with the bill. They make record profits at the expense of frontline communities, biodiversity, taxpayers, and our climate. The reforms finalized today will help ensure that corporate polluters are on the hook to clean up their mess, with their own money,” said Evergreen Action Senior Policy Lead for Energy Transition Mattea Mrkusic. “This new rule finalizes long-overdue fiscal reforms to the federal oil and gas program – formalizing the common-sense changes made as part of the Inflation Reduction Act. This rule will help staunch the practice of oil and gas companies abusing public lands for pennies on the dollar. Let’s be real: We need to get these oil companies off our public land. But for now, we’re glad they won’t get to stiff the public while they keep using public resources. We look forward to working with BLM on further action to directly address the climate impacts of oil and gas drilling on federal lands in the future.”  

“From Grand Teton National Park to Dinosaur National Monument, the agencies' final rule is good news for national parks,” said Daniel Hart, clean energy and climate policy director at the National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA). “With over 80 national park units directly adjacent to public lands managed by BLM, the health of our parks is directly affected by decisions made by BLM. This durable, commonsense update provides BLM with the tools needed to bring conservation into balance and to strategically steer future oil and gas development away from our national parks.”

“For too long, Big Oil has scooped up tens of thousands of acres of public lands for drilling and left taxpayers to foot the bill to clean up their messes,” said Athan Manuel, director of Sierra Club’s Lands Protection Program. “This new rule addresses long-overdue problems and finally reins in the excesses of oil and gas corporations. These common-sense reforms set the stage for greater climate action on public lands, ensuring they’re part of the climate solution and not exacerbating the crisis.”

In substance, the final rule addresses two critical buckets of reforms. First, it operationalizes a suite of legislated fiscal provisions contained in the Inflation Reduction Act, which raised royalties, rents and minimum bids; instituted an expression of interest fee; and ended non-competitive leasing. Second, it provides much-needed updates to existing regulations that will raise minimum bonding levels, and limit the leasing of “low-potential lands.” As a group, these reforms will improve taxpayer returns on the development of publicly owned resources, limit pervasive industry speculation that has tied up federal lands for decades, and ensure that industry is on the hook for cleaning up when it’s finished drilling and producing oil and gas.

Today’s rule is an important step for conservation, and we look forward to working with the agency to develop meaningful curbs on fossil fuel emissions from oil and gas development on public lands. 

Public lands play an important role in supporting healthy and vibrant communities and ecosystems. But climate impacts caused by drilling for and burning oil and gas threaten these cherished spaces: extreme drought, wildfire, heat, flooding and species loss already harm public lands. 

The U.S. ranks as the second-largest emitter of climate pollution on the planet, and the Biden administration has the authority now to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions by addressing fossil fuel development on federal lands. Climate scientists have repeatedly warned that the only path away from the worsening climate crisis is to end the extraction and burning of fossil fuels. 

NRDC(Natural Resources Defense Council) is an international nonprofit environmental organization with more than 3 million members and online activists. Established in 1970, NRDC uses science, policy, law, and people power to confront the climate crisis, protect public health, and safeguard nature. NRDC has offices in New York City, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Bozeman, MT, Beijing and Delhi (an office of NRDC India Pvt. Ltd). Visit us atwww.nrdc.organd follow us on Twitter @NRDC.