Legal Updates

Last week, Natural Resources Chairman Rob Bishop (R-Utah), formally introduced his revamped House Bill, the Public Lands Initiative, which seeks to designate millions of acres of proposed Wilderness, establish large motorized recreation areas, and expedite the development of oil, gas and minerals in southeastern Utah. The Bill encompasses the controversial Bears Ears, a pair of […]

The United States Forest Service (“Forest Service”) manages 193 million acres of public lands that provide 20 percent of the nation’s clean water supply worth an estimated $7.2 billion per year. Management of public lands by the Forest Service includes issuance of special use permits for 122 ski area operations in thirteen states. 116 of […]

On February 11, 2016, the Bureau of Land Management (“BLM”) announced significant proposed amendments to its land use planning rules as a part of its Planning 2.0 initiative. The stated goals of the proposed rules are to: (1) improve the BLM’s ability to respond to social and environmental change in a timely manner; (2) provide […]

On February 8, 2016, the BLM published its long awaited proposed rule to control venting, flaring and leaks of natural gas from oil and gas operations on onshore Federal and Indian lands. 81 Fed. Reg. 6616. The primary purposes of the rule are to: (1) update regulatory requirements in light of newer technology; (2) increase […]

“Keep it in the Ground” – Part II

After the President denied the Keystone XL pipeline, climate change activists have turned their attention to federal fossil fuel leasing, discussed in our recent blog post: What’s Next, Post Keystone XL? “Keep it in the Ground!”.  The “Keep it in the Ground” proponents argue the President should abandon his “all of the above” energy policy […]

With the rejection of the Keystone XL pipeline by President Obama as part of the Administration’s “package” of climate change actions to deliver to the UN Conference on Climate Change in December, activists and their political allies have turned to the next battlefield – stopping the leasing of federal minerals. http://goo.gl/mU8qia On November 4, Senator […]

On October 30, 2015, Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack sent a letter to Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell recommending that BLM cancel 18 long-held oil and gas leases located on Forest Service managed surface in an area of Northwestern Montana called the Badger-Two Medicine. These leases, originally issued in 1982, have been the focus […]

Dated and effective July 17, 2015, the Bureau of Land Management (“BLM”) issued Instruction Memorandum 2015-124 (“IM-2015-124”). This BLM guidance significantly changes the way federal Communization Agreements (“CAs”) are administered and, for the most part, eliminates some of the cumbersome issues for operators applying for CAs. CAs are used to combine isolated or small federal […]

Like presidents before him, President Obama is using the 1906 Antiquities Act, 16 U.S.C. § 431-433, as part of his presidential legacy. In September, 2014, Obama exercised this authority for the 12th time and expanded a national monument, created by his predecessor George W. Bush, from 87,000 square miles to more than 490,000 square miles […]

On September 21, the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation (ACHP), an independent federal agency with a key advisory role in National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) § 106 “effects” determinations, recommended that long-ago issued federal oil and gas leases should be cancelled and that future mineral development should not occur within the Badger-Two Medicine area, located […]

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