Aug 24, 2026 Joint Trades Comments on BLM Oil and Gas Leasing Rule
Western Energy Alliance, the Independent Petroleum Association of America, Colorado Oil and Gas Association, Montana Petroleum Association, New Mexico Oil and Gas Association, North Dakota Petroleum Council, Petroleum Association of Wyoming, Utah Petroleum Association, and West Slope Colorado Oil and Gas Association, collectively the Trades, appreciate the opportunity to comment on the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) draft rule on Oil and Gas Leasing. The Trades support the proposed updates, with minor comments and edits suggested, and urge BLM to expeditiously finalize the rule.
If finalized, the draft rule would create a more streamlined onshore oil and gas leasing and permitting program, while maintaining environmental protections on federal lands. The rule would also make oil and natural gas development on federal lands more competitive with production on state and private lands, ensuring the costs to operate and timelines for development of federal acreage more closely resemble those on non-federal lands. The proposed changes appropriately reflect FLPMA’s requirement that BLM manage these lands for multiple and sustained yield of resources such as oil and gas.
As BLM’s website notes, production of federal minerals “accounted for approximately 15 percent of domestically produced oil and 9 percent of domestically produced natural gas” in the most recent year for which data are available. Thus, BLM’s management of the onshore oil and gas program is undoubtedly critical to ensuring our country’s energy dominance and national security. Once again, the Trades appreciate that BLM’s draft rule would help achieve those goals.
Our comments highlight support for specific changes in the proposal, provide details on why those changes are necessary, and offer suggestions on ways in which the rule could be strengthened or clarified, including in response to questions posed by BLM within the draft. The comments proceed section-by-section through the proposed rule, although not all of the sections necessitate a response. In lieu of repeating previous discussion of deficiencies with the 2024 Rule, the Trades also provide our prior comment letters as attachments at the end of this submission. …
