A new proposed rule from the U.S. Department of the Interior would shortchange Montanans, reduce public input on decisions affecting public lands and waters, and put more fish and wildlife habitat at risk.
The proposal would roll back key parts of the Bureau of Land Management’s 2024 Oil and Gas Rule, including up-front bonding requirements that help to ensure oil and gas companies — not taxpayers — pay to clean up and restore public lands after drilling. The current rates recognize the true costs of plugging wells and reclaiming damaged public lands, but weakening those requirements increases the likelihood that abandoned and orphaned wells will be left for Montanans to clean up – and pay for.
Under the proposed rule, public comment periods for oil and gas leasing decisions would be reduced from 90 days to just 10 days, leaving hunters, anglers, landowners and local communities with little time to understand proposals and provide adequate public input.
Existing safeguards that ensure critical habitat, clean water, and other public uses are all considered would also be weakened with the proposed rules.
Montanans support responsible energy development, but only when developers are held accountable, taxpayers receive a fair return, and local communities have meaningful opportunities to weigh in on decisions affecting public lands and waters. These new proposed rules grant us none of these.
The Montana Wildlife Federation encourages comments in opposition to the proposed rollback. The deadline to comment is August 24th.
Suggested talking points:
- As a Montanan, I insist that my voice be heard and weighed appropriately in how our public lands are used. 10 days of public comment are insufficient. The two 30-day public comment periods should remain.
- This is another example of privatizing profits and socializing the losses—a story all too familiar to Montanans. When companies drill on public lands, they should be held accountable for the messes they make. I ask that DOI maintain the bonding requirements established in the 2024 Leasing Rule. This will ensure that Montana taxpayers are not treated as the cleanup crew for out-of-state corporations.
- A recent poll found that 95% of Montanans support requiring oil and gas companies, rather than taxpayers, to pay for all cleanup and land restoration costs after drilling is finished. Across the West, nearly 9 in 10 voters support the same basic requirement. We should not be weakening bonding requirements.
- More than 260,000 Americans commented on the 2024 Oil and Gas Rule, and 99.4% supported the reforms. Just a few years later, we should not be weakening safeguards designed to protect public lands and wildlife habitat. DOI should maintain the leasing preference criteria that attempt to avoid sensitive fish and wildlife habitat and lands with little promise of extractive potential.
- According to Conservatives for Responsible Stewardship, rolling back federal oil and gas bonding requirements could leave American taxpayers responsible for up to $753.5 billion in cleanup costs on public lands. Rolling back bonding requirements is unfair and fiscally irresponsible.
- Leases should not be allowed to be held indefinitely. This puts our public lands in limbo, for an uncertain amount of time, with little return to taxpayers, all while risking proactive conservation efforts and restricting other land uses.
