April 19, 2022 |
The Wyoming Office of the Bureau of Land Management is moving forward with a lease sale for oil and gas on June 21st and 22nd, but fewer parcels will be available than planned last fall.
The sale will be the first on public lands in Wyoming since Joe Biden banned new leases upon taking over the White House in January of 2021.
According to a release, 129 parcels containing about 131,771 acres of public minerals will be available in the sale. Originally, 459 parcels were up for bid. The feds slashed available number of parcels by more than 80 percent.
As part of the new lease rules announced by the Biden administration on Friday, the BLM also is applying a first-ever increased royalty rate of 18.75% for the leases sold in the current competitive lease sales. The rate is on par with fees charged by states and private landowners.
Yesterday’s posting of the sale initiated a 30-day public protest period that ends May 18th. Links to the environmental assessment, maps, parcel lists, the notice of competitive lease sale and the proposed lease stipulations are available on the BLM’s website.
File photo.
