Off limits: 23 energy leases cancelled in Wyoming mountains.
Wyoming BLM pulls plug on 23 leases
The Wyoming office of the US Bureau of Land Management (BLM) will not accept high bids on 23 oil and gas leases covering 23,757 acres in the Wyoming Range mountains, the agency announced.
The leases had been in limbo since 2006 after environmental groups filed appeals with the US Interior Board of Land Appeals (IBLA), saying the environmental analysis used to justify leasing the parcels was insufficient.
The IBLA issued an injunction keeping the BLM from finalising the sale until it could rule on the merit of the appeals.
While the IBLA had not issued its final ruling yet, the BLM said it would nullify the sale of the parcels and return about $2.2 million in high bids.
All the parcels fall within the boundaries of the Wyoming Range Legacy Act, which was signed into law in March.
Covering about 1.2 million acres, the federal act prohibits further energy leasing and allows conservation groups to buy and retire leases from operators willing to sell them.
“It is clear the president and congress have determined that there are higher and better uses of this land than oil and gas exploration and development,” Wyoming BLM state director Don Simpson told bidders in a letter obtained by UpstreamOnline.
The BLM said the decision was consistent with federal law.
“The Secretary of the Interior is vested by the Mineral Leasing Act of 1920, as amended, with broad discretionary authority to lease or not lease federal land which is otherwise available for leasing,” Simpson wrote in the letter.
“The secretary (through BLM) may exercise that broad authority to reject a bid and decline the offer to lease for any reason, prior to lease execution.”
In January, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar refused to accept high bids on 77 parcels in Utah, saying that the BLM had not carried out proper consultations with the National Park Service prior to including the tracts in the auction.
Interior is facing a pair of lawsuits protesting that decision from operators who bid on the parcels.
A representative for Denver-based Stanley Energy, which submitted high bids on 7 of the 23 parcels, could not be reached by UpstreamOnline for comment today.