The Bureau of Land Management Utah State Office seeks public comment for the September 2023 oil and gas lease sale

The Bureau of Land Management Utah State Office seeks public comment for the September 2023 oil and gas lease sale

SALT LAKE CITY - Consistent with direction in the Inflation Reduction Act, the Bureau of Land Management Utah State Office released an environmental assessment analyzing 18 parcels comprising 31,807.99 acres for the proposed September 2023 Competitive Oil and Gas Lease Sale. Fourteen of these parcels cover 26,853.94 acres on public lands managed by the BLM Richfield Field Office with an additional four parcels totaling 4,954.05 acres on National Forest System lands administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service (USDA Forest Service) Fishlake National Forest. The release of this environmental assessment starts a 30-day public comment period, which will end April 19, 2023.

The BLM completed scoping on these parcels on Dec. 22, 2022, and now seeks a 30-day public comment on the environmental analysis. All parcels leased as part of an oil and gas lease sale include appropriate stipulations to protect important natural resources. Public comments must be submitted electronically via the BLM Land Use Planning and National Environmental Policy Act Register (ePlanning) and must be received by April 19, 2023, at 4:30 p.m. MT. Comments received by other methods will not be accepted. Additional information, including spatial data and exhibits, are online on our ePlanning website at https://eplanning.blm.gov/eplanning-ui/project/2022049/510.

Please note the most valuable public comments are practical and relevant to the proposed action. For example, comments may question, within reason, the accuracy of information, methodology or assumptions, then present reasonable alternatives to those already analyzed. Comments containing only opinions and/or preferences, or those seeming similar to other comments will not be addressed specifically in the environmental review process.

This BLM lease sale will include updated fiscal provisions authorized by Congress in the Inflation Reduction Act:

• Minimum bids for all offered parcels will be $10 per acre, an increase from the $2 per-acre minimum bid set in 1987;
• Royalty rates will be 16.67 percent, up from the previous minimum of 12.5 percent; and
• Rental rates will be $3 per acre for the first two years; $5 per acre for years three through eight; and $15 per acre for years nine and 10. (Prior to the Inflation Reduction Act, rental rates were $1.50 per acre for the first five years and $2 per acre for each year thereafter, rates originally set in 1987).

Further information can be found here.

The BLM manages more than 245 million acres of public land located primarily in 12 western states, including Alaska, on behalf of the American people. The BLM also administers 700 million acres of sub-surface mineral estate throughout the nation. Our mission is to sustain the health, diversity, and productivity of America's public lands for the use and enjoyment of present and future generations.