** Companies stock up on oil and gas leases
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Wednesday, September 9, 2020
Oil and gas drilling, Montana Board of Oil and Gas Conservation ([link removed])

Despite low prices and demand, companies are stocking up ([link removed]) on oil and gas leases ahead of November's presidential election. Oil prices dropped sharply ([link removed]) in March due to a glut of supply and decreased demand, and despite modest increases over the past few months prices dipped again yesterday ([link removed]) . Despite the industry's weakened state, companies continue to buy up leases for oil and gas development on public land. In the Permian Basin, federal permitting is up 80 percent ([link removed]) in the past three months, even as the outlook for oil remains uncertain.

There will be six lease sales spanning 300,000 acres in September. With prices remaining low, these sales shortchange state budgets that rely heavily on revenue from oil and gas leasing. In New Mexico, where one-third of the state's budget comes from oil and gas development, lease bids averaged $169 per acre ([link removed]) last month, compared to an average of $1,386 per acre in February of this year. The trend—companies paying bargain rates to lock up land ([link removed]) —shortchanges taxpayers and demonstrates the outdated nature of the oil and gas leasing system.
Quick hits


** Much of the American West is on fire, illustrating the dangers of a climate of extremes
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Washington Post ([link removed]) | Los Angeles Times [Editorial] ([link removed])


** U.S. shale producers race for federal permits
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Reuters ([link removed]) | The New Republic ([link removed])


** National monument proposed for southern Nevada tribal lands
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Associated Press ([link removed])


** A Utah parking lot is paved with coal—now taxpayers may have to pay to clean it up
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Salt Lake Tribune ([link removed])


** Nevada oil leases sold to speculator, poet with Myanmar ties
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Bloomberg ([link removed])


** Utah's Great Salt Lake shrinking more than a foot annually
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Associated Press ([link removed])


** State parks have been full of visitors amid the pandemic—can budgets and regulations keep up?
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USA Today ([link removed])


** Forrest Fenn, creator of famed treasure hunt, dies
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Santa Fe New Mexican ([link removed])
Quote of the day
So we haven’t, as a species, sufficiently heeded the warnings of our scientists, and now we are seeing the costs of that intransigence... We need to end this reliance on fossil fuels if we’re going to have any hope of mitigating the damage we have already done to the global environment, and to ourselves. We need to stop building communities in places that we know will burn.”
—Editorial Board, Los Angeles Times ([link removed])
Picture this


** @YellowstoneNPS ([link removed])
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The Mammoth Hot Springs terraces gives you a chance to explore cave-like formations without heading into a cave. Hot springs bubbling up through limestone drive the formation of beautiful travertine terraces, which you can virtually visit: [link removed]… ([link removed]) . #Yellowstone ([link removed])

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