FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Upcoming Utah Oil and Gas Lease Sale Canceled

BLM continues to recognize need to protect wildlife habitat from drilling impacts in Utah, other states left unprotected

The Utah office of the federal Bureau of Land Management has canceled its regular sale of oil and gas leases on public land this fall, citing the need to further analyze impacts to wildlife habitat in the places proposed for leasing.

The Utah office of the federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has canceled its regular sale of oil and gas leases on public land this fall, citing the need to further analyze impacts to wildlife habitat in the places proposed for leasing.  At least 141,000 acres of Utah federal land would have been offered for lease in November, but more than 139,400 acres of that was found to contain wildlife habitat and a potential Wild and Scenic River corridor that could be degraded or destroyed if drilling occurred there.

In a September 28 announcement, the Utah BLM said it needed to evaluate new information about habitat for wildlife as well as information about the impacts caused by oil and gas wells and their associated infrastructure.  The BLM withdrew all but two of the 86 parcels nominated for the November sale, citing in most cases a recent court ruling that ordered the agency to consider impacts to sensitive wildlife habitat before leasing land for oil and gas drilling.

“The BLM in Utah is clearly recognizing the harm that oil and gas drilling can cause to sensitive wildlife like sage grouse and prairie dogs,” said Megan Corrigan, Staff Biologist at Center for Native Ecosystems.  “It is appropriate for the BLM to wait on leasing until they can really look at the impacts to the fragile wildlife and places which they are in charge of protecting.”

During its last lease sale in August of this year, the Utah BLM withdrew 38,495 acres, including habitat for the imperiled greater sage grouse, based on protests from conservation and hunting groups.  In addition, it voluntarily withdrew another 157,731 acres, acknowledging it had not fully considered environmental impacts to natural resources such as the imperiled native plant Graham’s penstemon and several potential Areas of Critical Environmental Concern.  All told, the BLM withdrew or postponed leasing on more than 292,000 acres in August, based largely on the same court decision which found problems with BLM’s analysis of impacts to sensitive species and other natural values.

“The BLM in Utah has seen the light,” said Josh Pollock, Conservation Director at Center for Native Ecosystems.  “But the BLM has this same obligation to consider sensitive wildlife before drilling in Colorado, in Wyoming, and throughout the West.  Why isn’t the BLM in these states showing the same care about the habitat it manages?”

In November 2006, the Internal Board of Land Appeals (IBLA) ruled that the BLM must consider the impacts of oil and gas drilling on sensitive wildlife and plants and their habitat at the point when it offers public lands for leasing, not later.  The IBLA also found that BLM’s reliance on untested mitigation measures to protect wildlife from oil and gas drilling impacts was illegal.  Another recent ruling in U.S. District Court against the BLM in Colorado found that the agency was failing to consider all the possible impacts of oil and gas drilling on habitat for at-risk wildlife and plants.

“Before leasing, the BLM can and should minimize the impacts of oil and gas drilling by requiring wildlife protections,” said Megan Corrigan, staff biologist at Center for Native Ecosystems.  “However, once the landscape is leased for oil and gas drilling, it’s often too late.”

Similar to Utah BLM, the BLM in Montana withdrew 73,600 acres from an August 2 oil and gas lease sale in part due to protest from the Montana Fish, Wildlife, and Parks Department that sage grouse habitat would be affected.  In contrast to the Utah BLM office, the Colorado and Wyoming offices of the BLM sold numerous parcels in wildlife habitat during their most recent lease sales, despite similar protests to those in Utah filed by Center for Native Ecosystems challenging their failure to analyze impacts to sage grouse and other species and to include appropriate mitigation to minimize impacts.

To see the Utah BLM’s announcement of the cancellation of their November lease sale, please go to: 

http://www.blm.gov/ut/st/en/prog/energy/oil_and_gas/oil_and_gas_lease/november_2007_oil.html

To read the IBLA ruling, please go to:

http://www.ibiadecisions.com/Ibla/iblaindexes/IblaVols/170ibla.html

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