Colorado BLM sells all the oil, gas leases up for bid after dramatically slashing the offerings

All the federal oil and gas leases offered at the Colorado Bureau of Land Management’s quarterly sale were bought Thursday. But the 7,847 acres of public land leased were a far cry from the roughly 224,000 acres of minerals originally on the block. The sale of the leases, mostly in western Colorado, netted a total of $981,143 in rent and fees, which will be split between the federal government and the state of Colorado. In September, the BLM said it would offer leases on parcels totaling 224,341 acres. The agency then pared the offering a few times in response to requests from Gov. John Hickenlooper, U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet and local elected officials and residents in the North Fork Valley of southwest Colorado. They raised concerns about the potential impacts of drilling on wildlife habitat, tourism and agriculture and approval of leases before the BLM finished updating its resource management plan for the area including the North Fork Valley. Another development was a preliminary injunction issued by a federal judge in Idaho in a lawsuit challenging changes the national BLM office made to shorten the time periods for public comment and revise requirements for environmental review to streamline and speed up leasing. The ruling in September by Chief U.S. Magistrate Ronald Bush in Pocatello, Idaho, temporarily replaced part of the Trump administration’s policy on the leasing of public lands in greater sage grouse habitat.
Colorado BLM officials have said the oil and gas leases pulled from Thursday’s auction could be offered at a later sale...MORE