What is the “law of the land” and how should it be enforced? These questions drive the interplay between state and federal governments, particularly in the Rocky Mountain West. This is especially true when you consider that the federal government owns vast areas of the surface of Colorado (35.9%), Wyoming (48.1%) and the other 10 […]
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 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 […]
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 […]
On August 5, 2015, EPA personnel were working with a private contractor on a water quality project at the Gold King Mine near Silverton, Colorado. The intent of the project was to assess ongoing mine water leakage and to identify and evaluate options for additional mine water treatment and for reduction in the amount of […]
On July 27, 2015, U.S. District Judge Richard Leon ordered the BLM to develop an “accelerated schedule” within the next 21 days to be used to decide whether to authorize development of 18 federal oil and gas leases that were originally issued in 1982, but have been suspended for several decades. As discussed earlier [insert […]
Despite the fact that the U.S. Bureau of Land Management lease sale covering lands in Wyoming conducted on May 5, 2015, brought in a paltry $688,000, which is the lowest total since August 2009, the Wyoming State Geological Survey (“WSGS”) has begun the process of developing the next generation of the Oil and Gas Map […]
At the end of March 2015, Montana’s U.S. Senator Jon Tester joined the Blackfeet Nation in calling on the federal government to cancel 18 existing federal oil and gas leases located in Northwestern Montana. These leases have been the focus of controversy for several decades, and Senator Tester’s recent letter appears to signal a new […]