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BLM’s Retained Rights
How Requiring Environmental Protection Fulfills Oil and Gas Lease Obligations
Bruce M. Pendery, Wyoming Outdoor Council | June 24, 2010
There are approximately 39 million acres of federal mineral estate in the eleven western states subject to onshore oil and natural gas leases issued by the Bureau of Land Management. The leases grant the lessee the right to extract oil or natural gas that may be found on the lease. However, the leases make the grant of rights “subject to” a number of reservations of authority to the federal government. A review of these authorities shows BLM retains substantial rights, allowing it to regulate the time, place, and manner of oil and gas development. This Article posits that given the mandatory nature of many of the authorities a federal onshore oil and gas lease is made subject to, not only does BLM have significant retained rights that allow it to protect the natural environment, it in fact has an obligation to assert them.
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