Energy producers sue BLM, Interior over unissued leases

A group of energy producers filed a brief in federal court Friday, claiming the Department of the Interior and the Bureau of Land Management are violating a congressional mandate to issue oil and gas leases within 60 days of purchase. In the brief, the producers claim the Interior Department and the BLM — an agency in the department — failed to issue leases within the time frame required by the Mineral Leasing Act. They want the court to issue an order requiring the permits be issued. The brief is the next step in a lawsuit filed with the court in October. The lawsuit covers 118 leases worth more than $4.5 million in Wyoming and Utah, which were purchased between 2005 and 2010, said a spokeswoman for Western Energy Alliance, a coalition of energy producers in the West and one of the petitioners in the suit...more