Organizations opposing the US Bureau of Land Management’s latest Utah oil and gas lease sale were elated when a federal district court judge issued a temporary restraining order Jan. 17 preventing BLM from moving forward with the leases.
The ruling by Judge Ricardo M. Urbina of the US District Court for Washington, DC, will keep BLM from cashing checks issued for contested tracts until the merits of their Dec. 17 lawsuit can be argued, the groups said in a joint press release.
They reiterated charges that acreage near Arches and Canyonlands National Parks, Dinosaur National Monument, and Nine-Mile Canyon in eastern Utah was included in the lease sale after Utah’s BLM state office “hastily” approved new resource management plans (RMPs).
“Under the Bush administration, [BLM] pushed through [RMPs] that treated some of America’s most sensitive and spectacular public lands as the private playgrounds of the oil and gas companies,” said Bill Hedden, executive director of the Grand Canyon Trust.
‘No corners were cut’
That idea doesn’t square with what Utah BLM employees told me a few days earlier. “Every plan followed a full process. No corners were cut. Some of these plans took 7-8 years to complete, while others took 4-5 years, the more typical arc,” said Don Ogaard, BLM’s state planning leader in Utah.
RMPs contain broad goals, objectives, and management prescriptions and goals, he said in a Jan. 12 telephone interview. They also follow the multiple use concept mandated in the 1976 Federal Land Policy and Management Act under which activities are supposed to coexist to the greatest extent possible, Ogaard said.
“Under the new plans, most of the new areas opened to oil and gas leasing would carry some form of protective stipulation,” he said. “Many leases will carry stipulations with respect to seasonally important wildlife habitat. Only about 35% of the land would be open to leasing under the standard terms and conditions.”
Some key differences
A look at BLM’s Utah website shows the differences between the old and new RMPs. Acreage available for oil and gas leasing was reduced by about 100,000 acres. Land available for leasing under standard terms dropped to 3.6 million acres from nearly 5.2 million, while land for leasing subject to controlled surface use or timing stipulations rose to 4 million acres from 3 million.
Acreage for leasing under no surface occupancy stipulations nearly doubled to 890,277 acres in the new plans from 464,166 acres in the old ones. Land unavailable for oil and gas leasing rose to more than 2.1 million acres from nearly 1.9 million acres.
“We’re always glad to address perceptions that vast new areas are being opened to drilling or that we’re conducting fire sales. Virtually all the land that is being opened to leasing under new plans was opened previously under old plans. The difference is that the new RMPs put better plans in place,” Ogaard said.