In announcing that the Interior Department plans to hold 38 quarterly oil and natural gas lease sales for onshore public lands in 2010, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar took the occasion to blast oil and gas trade associations for uttering “untruths” about the department’s onshore and offshore leasing programs, saying they were acting like an “arm of a political party” during an election year by “repeatedly” launching attacks against the department.

He declined to name the trade associations and energy companies that were the most vocal critics. “They know who they are,” he told reporters during a teleconference Tuesday.

The 2010 schedule calls for onshore auctions in New Mexico (three), Montana (five), Wyoming (four), Colorado (four), Utah (four), Eastern States (four), Nevada (three), California (four), Oregon (three) and New Mexico (three), and in Alaska’s National Petroleum Reserve (one). Salazar said he also expects to complete his evaluation of the existing 2007-2010 Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) leasing plan, which was vacated and remanded by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in April, “in the near future” (see Daily GPI, April 20).

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) held 32 onshore lease sales this year, while Interior’s Minerals Management Service (MMS) conducted two lease sales in the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS), Salazar said. The two agencies combined offered more than 55 million acres for oil and gas development in the current year, he noted.

“We believe that our oil and gas leasing program is robust…but you wouldn’t know it if you listened to the untruths coming out of some corners of the oil and gas industry,” Salazar said. The oil and gas industry “[needs] to understand that they do not own the nation’s public land, taxpayers do.”

Thomas J. Pyle, president of the Institute for Energy Research, countered that the Obama administration’s first year in office has been the worst on record for domestic energy development. “President Obama and Secretary Salazar may speak of responsible, homegrown energy, but their actions are in direct contrast to their words. In fact, this administration has kept more publicly owned federal lands off-limits for energy development this year than any on record,” he said.

While Pyle faults the administration, Salazar believes the onus is on producers and trade associations. “The truth is most energy companies are responsible developers…But those companies need to make a choice. Their shareholders didn’t sign up to have their companies [and] trade associations behave like an arm of a political party. Oil and gas companies can choose a different path — one of engagement, corporate responsibility [and] honesty,” he said.

“They have a responsibility to diligently develop the 26 million acres of public land and 28 million acres of ocean that have been leased, but which today stand idle.”

BLM Director Bob Abbey reported that approximately 5,000 of the 7,735 active leases in the OCS are not producing, while about half of the 53,585 active onshore leases are not producing. This is in large part due to the fact that about half of the parcels offered for lease in 2008 and this year have been protested and/or are the subject of litigation.

Abbey and Interior Assistant Secretary Wilma Lewis are working on reform efforts to lessen the controversy and litigation surrounding leases, according to Salazar. He said the two are expected to make an announcement in the near future.

“We believe that industry deserves greater certainty when they go into [a] lease auction. They should never be given the false promise of a lease parcel next to a national park,” he said. “The reason that there is uncertainty [now] is because of the fact in [the] prior administration there were shortcuts taken,” such as leasing parcels next to national parks, Salazar noted.

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