Blm

The U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has finalized a rule designed to curb methane pollution from oil and natural gas production on federal and Tribal lands, in part by collecting royalty payments on flared gas. The Waste Prevention, Production Subject to Royalties, and Resource Conservation rule, which was proposed in…

The latest Wyoming oil and natural gas lease sale garnered $13.2 million for more than 35,700 acres in the Powder River and Green River basins, and at least two more quarterly lease sales are planned.  The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) offered 81 parcels in the quarterly sale, with 53 sold. The highest bid per…

A federal circuit panel has ruled that the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) did not break any laws when it approved Jonah Energy LLC’s natural gas drilling project in Wyoming on land that includes sage grouse populations as well as migration paths for pronghorns. “We conclude that BLM adequately collected and considered information on the…

A proposed rule by the Department of Interior’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to increase bonding requirements, royalty rates and minimum bids for natural gas and oil producers was met with criticism from the industry.  The draft rule would increase economic returns for the country while ensuring oil and natural gas companies are environmentally responsible…

Five of the nation’s top natural gas and oil trade groups are rejecting calls to overhaul how Lower 48 land is leased for energy development by pairing it with conservation concerns. The Conservation and Landscape Health Rule (CLH) proposal by the Biden administration would allow the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to “protect intact landscapes,…

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and Wyoming officials have proposed updating the state’s sage grouse core area protection map as the bird’s population has steadily improved. The protection areas were initially developed in 2008 and revised in 2015 and 2019. The updated map includes additional protection areas that cover a total of 15 million…

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) garnered almost $79 million from a recent natural gas and oil lease sale in New Mexico and Kansas. Forty-five parcels totaling 10,123 acres were auctioned across Cheyenne County, KS, and in Chaves, Eddy and Lea counties, NM. The New Mexico counties are in the heart of the Permian Basin’s…

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) approved a 732-mile transmission line across federal lands to move wind energy to Nevada from Wyoming.  BLM issued the notice to proceed (NTP) for the TransWest Express Project (TWE), which would carry 3 GW of capacity generated from the largest onshore wind generation project in North America, according to…

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is proposing to change how public lands are managed to put conservation on equal footing as other uses, including oil and natural gas extraction. The BLM plan for conservation leasing would entail a time-limited lease of public land that allows interested organizations to conduct specific restoration or mitigation activities.…