Documents
The Mineral Leasing Act of 1920, as amended [30 U.S.C. 181 et seq.], and the Federal Onshore Oil and Gas Leasing Reform Act of 1987, require the BLM to conduct quarterly, competitive lease sales to offer available oil and gas lease parcels. Expressions of Interest (EOIs) to nominate parcels for leasing by the BLM are submitted by the public. From these EOIs, the BLM prepares the parcels and determines whether or not the existing analyses in the Land Use Plans, as amended, provide basis for leasing oil and gas resources within these parcels, and conducts additional NEPA analysis before determining if parcels are suitable to be offered.
On August 15, 2023, a total of five (5) parcels (8,210.88 acres) were removed from the lease sale. Therefore, one (1) parcel encompassing 761.36 acres is being considered for the lease sale and will be identified in the Notice of Competitive Lease Sale (NCLS).
How to Submit a Protest:
The BLM is offering a 30-day protest period. The protest period begins August 23, 2023, and ends on September 22, 2023, at 4:30 p.m. MT. The BLM Utah State Office will move forward as analyzed in the environmental assessment (DOI-BLM-UT-0000-2023-0003-EA), by offering 1 parcel totaling 761.36 acres in Uintah County on public lands managed by the Vernal Field Office. The posting of the Notice of Competitive Lease Sale (NCLS) initiates a 30-day protest period that ends on September 22, 2023. Protests on the offered parcels may only be submitted electronically through email at [email protected]; the subject line must read: “Quarter 4, 2023 Protest.” The BLM must receive all protests by 4:30 p.m., on September 22nd, and as stated, can only accept emailed protests.
Only 1 parcel encompassing 761.36 acres will move forward in the Notice of Competitive Lease Sale (NCLS).
PROTEST PERIOD
To the extent you submit exhibits or attachments to any submitted protest, you must provide a summary of the attached documents, and explain why they are important for us to consider. If the submittal fails to include the requested summary, BLM may not consider any information in the exhibits or attachments during its decision-making process.
Please note that the most useful protests are those that identify issues relevant to the proposed action or contain new technical or scientific information. Protests which contain only opinions or preferences will not be specifically addressed.
Before including your address, phone number, email address, or other personal identifying information in your comment, you should be aware that your entire comment - including your personal identifying information - may be made publicly available at any time. While you can ask us in your comment to withhold your personal identifying information from public review, we cannot guarantee that we will be able to do so.
Timeline:
The 30-day Public Comment Period-June 2, 2023 to July 3, 2023 has closed.
The BLM received 38 comment letters, six comment letters of which contained a series of substantive comments. They were from Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Utah Public Lands Policy Coordinating Office (PLPCO), Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (SUWA), National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA), National Wildlife Federation (NWF), and Maryland Ornithological Society (MOS).
The 30-day Scoping Period-December 20, 2022 to January 19, 2023 has closed.