Yesterday, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) suspended the sale of all 31 oil and natural gas drilling tracts in Utah that had been purchased earlier in the day during a regularly scheduled lease sale, after the bureau accepted last-minute protests about the sale from two environmental groups. BLM has put all the leases on hold to conduct an environmental assessment.
While we appreciate the need to address protests to proposed lease sales, the deviation from set procedures by accepting late protests does not promote confidence that the Obama administration is committed to an orderly and predictable leasing process that allows for development of energy resources that belong to the American people.
This apparent policy of delay--in the face of public sentiment that favors greater access to domestic oil and natural gas resources--serves as a disincentive to companies willing to spend billions of dollars in America to hire American workers to produce American fuel for the American consumer.
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