America’s Oil and Gas Leasing Program is Getting an Overhaul

Until April 15, the Department of the Interior is gathering input from the public about the country’s oil and gas program. In addition to climate and environmental impacts, oil and gas leasing has a direct effects on outdoor recreation – especially when developers buy up land with valuable trails and other outdoor recreation – and this comment period is a key opportunity to get involved in a process that directly affects our experiences outside.

Background on the Oil & Gas Leasing Program

From the standpoint of outdoor recreation, oil and gas leasing is significant for a number of reasons. Development activities directly affect the recreational experience on nearby lands, through noise, air quality, and aesthetic impacts, as well as through the loss of access that comes from development. Speculative leasing—even if no development activities occur in the near term—is also a problem because it complicates long-term protection and recreational development efforts. Additionally, oil and gas development has a long track record of severe environmental impacts, particularly in the off-shore drilling context. Further, public lands and waters are a significant source of greenhouse gas emissions that are fueling the climate crisis—and, unlike a lot of private activity, the federal government can act more freely to protect public lands and waters from unnecessary or excessive drilling.

During the Trump administration, Interior worked to lease vast swaths of our public lands and waters for drilling, prioritizing fossil fuel development above all other uses and curtailing public comment periods. Not only does this have long-term effects on our climate, but it also led to some troubling situations, where parcels of land with incredibly valuable trails and other recreation were being quickly leased off to developers. Our oil and gas monitoring program was developed to identify conflicts with recreation and stop the sale of leases in incompatible locations.

Over the past three years, we have flagged 95 parcels and more than 150,000 acres of public land made available for oil and gas leasing and containing recreation. One thing that made the leasing process tricky to navigate was that comment periods were often very short, making it difficult for us to review potential lease sales, map recreation, and then create maps, a comment letter, or encourage you to send in a comment. However, we developed GIS screening tools that allowed us to quickly activate the outdoor recreation community and submit comment letters within a limited timeframe when recreation conflicts were identified. We even managed a few victories along the way. Perhaps most stunning was the BLM’s reversal of 85,000 acres of recreation rich lands around Moab, Utah.

Our partners at Surfrider Foundation have also been working to stop new offshore drilling and protect U.S. coastlines from the climate impacts of oil and gas development.

An Opportunity to Reform the System

What’s going on now? In his first few weeks in office, President Biden paused new oil and gas leases on public lands and offshore waters and asked Interior to review the current oil and gas leasing program. In particular, the administration is looking to improve comment periods and better account for climate impacts of development on public lands.

Until the mineral leasing system is reformed, the BLM has broad discretion to lease our favorite climbing, biking, hiking, and camping areas. There’s been a lot of ideas about how to reform this antiquated process, including several bills in Congress, but right now is a golden opportunity to recalibrate the role, if any, for fossil fuel development on public lands and waters. Interior is gathering feedback from stakeholders, and everyone who loves the outdoors is a stakeholder on public lands. You can submit a comment by April 15 – the tool below lets you send a comment directly to the email address at Interior.

Click on the letter to read the full testimony.

Outdoor Alliance is submitting comments to Interior, which you can read by clicking the letter at right.

A solid public process, including substantial comment periods for stakeholders, is important for maintaining a healthy public lands system. Comment periods are a crucial opportunity to make your voice heard – and in this case, to ensure you can continue to make your voice heard! Comments were due to Interior on April 15.