Heinrich Joins Colleagues in Fight Against Rescission of Key Energy Leasing That Will Harm Access to America’s Public Lands

WASHINGTON - U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), Ranking Member of the U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, joined U.S. Senator Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) and U.S. Representative Jared Huffman (D-Calif.), Ranking Member of the U.S. House Natural Resources Committee, in denouncing the BLM's proposal to rescind the 2024 Fluid Mineral Leases and Leasing Process rule (the 2024 Onshore Leasing Rule). The recission, if approved, will harm public lands, reduce community input, increase pollution, and raise taxpayer costs.

The 2024 Onshore Leasing Rule ensured that the concerns of states, Tribes, and local communities were included in decision-making and was a long-overdue correction to decades of BLM policies that favored oil and gas development over other uses and led to tens of thousands of dangerous abandoned wells that became the financial responsibility of taxpayers instead of the oil and gas companies. This rule had immense public support and established a balanced framework that saved taxpayer money, ensured multi-use management of public lands, and protected cultural resources and rural communities that depend on public lands.

In this letter, the lawmakers ask that the administration specifically reconsider oil and gas bonding requirements; public participation, Tribal consultation, and landowner involvement; and leasing preference criteria.

"We write to express our strong opposition to the Bureau of Land Management's (BLM) proposal to rescind the 2024 Fluid Mineral Leases and Leasing Process rule ("2024 Leasing Rule"). The proposed replacement undermines the agency's multiple-use mandate, promotes irresponsible oil and gas leasing, and fails to protect American taxpayers and private landowners," the lawmakers began.

"[…] BLM's newly proposed rule threatens to dismantle this common-sense progress. We are deeply concerned that the proposed changes shift cleanup liabilities back to the public, restrict community and private landowner participation, and distort the balance required to manage America's public lands responsibly," the lawmakers continued.

Read the full text of the letter HERE and below.

Dear Secretary Burgum and Director Pearce,

We write to express our strong opposition to the Bureau of Land Management's (BLM) proposal to rescind the 2024 Fluid Mineral Leases and Leasing Process rule ("2024 Leasing Rule"). The proposed replacement undermines the agency's multiple-use mandate, promotes irresponsible oil and gas leasing, and fails to protect American taxpayers and private landowners.

Our public lands support diverse economies rooted in fishing, hunting, livestock grazing, energy development, and outdoor recreation. For decades, as documented in the Department of Interior's 2021 Report on the Federal Oil and Gas Leasing Program, BLM's policies and management favored oil and gas development at the expense of other multiple uses. The 2024 Leasing Rule provided a long-overdue correction by directly addressing Government Accountability Office findings showing that BLM's outdated leasing practices shortchanged the American public, invited speculation, and left taxpayers to foot the bill for cleaning up toxic, dangerous orphaned wells.

As the first comprehensive update to the onshore oil and gas program in nearly forty years, the 2024 Leasing Rule was finalized after robust public engagement, with 99 percent of the 260,000 public comments in support. It established a balanced framework that saves taxpayer dollars, ensures multi-use management, and protects cultural resources and rural communities that depend on public lands.

By contrast, BLM's newly proposed rule threatens to dismantle this common-sense progress. We are deeply concerned that the proposed changes shift cleanup liabilities back to the public, restrict community and private landowner participation, and distort the balance required to manage America's public lands responsibly. In particular, we request that you reconsider the following provisions:

Oil and Gas Bonding Requirements

The bonding requirements in the 2024 Leasing Rule represent a pragmatic, responsible approach to public land stewardship. Modernizing individual and statewide lease bonds is a fiscal necessity to ensure the "complete" and "timely" reclamation of federal well sites, as required by the Mineral Leasing Act (MLA). Reverting to outdated 1950s-era bonding levels is fiscally irresponsible, going against the wishes of Western states, many of which are increasing bonding rates for state lands, not decreasing them. Lowering bonding levels could also allow companies to abandon wells and shift hundreds of millions of dollars in clean-up costs to the American public. Furthermore, reinstating nationwide bonds allows operators to cover vast, multi-state liabilities, potentially up to thousands of wells, with a single, inadequate financial assurance. We urge BLM not to reauthorize nationwide bonding.

Over 89% of Westerners believe that energy developers, not taxpayers, should pay to clean up their own drilling sites. Weakening these federal bonding requirements ignores this overwhelming majority and the potential $753 billion in clean-up liability across 200 million acres of federal lands that would shift to taxpayers.

Public Participation, Tribal Consultation, & Landowner Involvement

Public participation and meaningful consultation with states, Tribes, and local stakeholders enables the agency to produce better, more thoughtful leasing decisions. Truncating public notice and comment periods unnecessarily and unfairly sidelines the Tribes, rural communities, hunters, anglers, and local business owners who know these lands best. Restricting public input does not streamline operations. It reduces transparency and degrades the quality of land-use decisions.

Further, it is illegal, as federal courts have specifically rejected efforts to cut the public out of the oil and gas leasing decision-making process. We urge BLM to maintain robust public comment and Tribal consultation periods.

In addition, there are over 57 million acres across the country of "split-estate" lands, where the federal government owns oil and gas resources, but the surface lands are privately owned. Since 2009 BLM has required oil and gas companies to identify the owners of split-estate lands prior to leasing, a requirement based on a recommendation from the George W. Bush administration. This proposed rule eliminates the long-standing notification requirements for private landowners, stripping ranchers, farmers, and homeowners of their ability to negotiate on how developers access and use their land while leaving them vulnerable to the permanent surface disruptions of industrial drilling.

Leasing Preference Criteria

The leasing preference criteria, adopted to ensure BLM's multi-use mandate, have been highly effective at proactively directing leasing away from critical wildlife habitats and high-value recreation and livestock management areas, providing certainty to local communities, energy developers, ranchers, and local businesses. Erasing these clear criteria will inevitably revive conflicts between users, leading to costly litigation and regulatory uncertainty. A predictable leasing framework benefits everyone, and abandoning it is a step backwards.

For these reasons, we strongly oppose BLM's proposal to rescind the 2024 Leasing Rule and urge BLM to maintain and continue to implement the current, balanced regulations. The 2024 Leasing Rule brought much-needed fiscal responsibility and balance for federal land management. The proposed rollbacks would jeopardize Western economies, abandon fiscal discipline, and undermine BLM's multi-use mandate.

Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,

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