DOINews: Changing the Way We Do Business

The Department of the Interior and Bureau of Land Management launched several reforms to the onshore oil and gas leasing process in an effort to improve protections for land, water, and wildlife and reduce potential conflicts that can lead to costly and time-consuming protests and litigation of leases. In addition, Secretary Salazar issued a Secretarial Order creating a new Energy Reform Team.

Secretary Salazar said the following about the new reforms:

We need a fresh look – from inside the federal government and from outside – at how we can better manage Americans' energy resources. The new guidance BLM is issuing for field managers will help bring clarity, consistency, and public engagement to the onshore oil and gas leasing process while balancing the many resource values that the Bureau of Land Management is entrusted with protecting on behalf of the American people. In addition, with the help of our new Energy Reform Team, we will improve the Department's internal operations to better manage publicly owned energy resources and the revenues they produce.

Many of the reforms that the Bureau of Land Management will undertake follow the recommendations of an interdisciplinary review team that studied a controversial 2008 oil and gas lease sale in Utah.

Under the reformed oil and gas leasing policy, BLM will provide the following:

• Comprehensive interdisciplinary reviews that take into account site-specific considerations for individual lease sales. Resource Management Plans will continue to provide programmatic-level guidance, but individual parcels nominated for leasing will undergo increased internal and external coordination, public participation, interdisciplinary review of available information, confirmation of Resource Management Plan conformance as well as site visits to parcels when necessary;
• Greater public involvement in developing Master Leasing and Development Plans for areas where intensive new oil and gas extraction is anticipated so that other important natural resource values can be fully considered prior to making an irreversible commitment to develop an area;
• Leadership in identifying areas where new oil and gas leasing will occur. The bureau will continue to accept industry expressions of interest regarding where to offer leases, but will emphasize leasing in already-developed areas and will plan carefully for leasing and development in new areas.

A comparison of the new guidance with current policy can be found here.

BLM Director Bob Abbey sat down with us to help explain what these new reforms mean for BLM and for oil and gas companies. Check out video of our interview with Director Abbey here.