|
The Bureau of Land Management removed a slate of Montana parcels proposed for a federal oil and gas lease sale following public concern that lease laws outlined in the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) were being ignored.
The removal of parcels for leasing signifies long-overdue cooperation with internal guidance to reform the oil and gas leasing system. Following the passage of the IRA, the Bureau of Land Management issued Instructional Memoranda laying out how it would lease public lands for oil and gas drilling under the new law. Since issuing the Instructional Memoranda, the BLM has not consistently followed its own guidance as it offered offered parcels that had been nominated anonymously more than three years ago and proposed lease sales covering an order of magnitude more acreage than is required under law.
Historically, Montana has leased public lands for cheap and generated relatively little oil. In 2020, the BLM awarded 11,713 lease acres to a perfume magnate from Myanmar for about $1.50 an acre. The perfume magnate then sold the parcels, sometimes to Myanmar natives, at prices as high as 13 times what she paid.
BLM Restoration Landscapes: Southwest Oregon
In celebration of the Bureau of Land Management’s $161 million investment in Western landscape restoration projects, Look West is highlighting a different "Restoration Landscape" each day for 21 days. Today’s landscape is Southwest Oregon. An investment of $5 million will go toward restoring the threatened Oregon Coast coho salmon by using aquatic and upland restoration projects that also support the recovery of other fish, amphibians, birds and plants.
|
This is a great year but it’s not enough to get us out of this situation.”
