New, Real Threat of Industrial Oil and Gas Development and Leasing in SW Montana
On Friday, August 1, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) published four new rule amendments to the federal oil and gas leasing program as required by President Trump’s reconciliation spending bill.
“These new federal rules make a bad situation worse. The previous system was already too lax in protecting our public lands and waters, and now the Bureau of Land Management is effectively eliminating public notice and scrutiny. By fast-tracking industry nominations and prohibiting new protections or stipulations during leasing, the government is handcuffing its ability to ensure projects are done right—for taxpayers, for downstream communities, and for the lands and waters we all own. This is a giveaway that pushes the real costs—polluted water, degraded habitat, and long-term environmental damage—onto the public while sidelining local input and science-based decision-making” said Guy Alsentzer, Executive Director of Upper Missouri Waterkeeper, “Frankly, it’s déjà vu—BLM’s own and independent studies have already shown that many of these lands are not desirable for leasing. So why repeat the same mistakes? It wastes public time, undermines trust, and exploits our public lands and waters.”
BLM’s new rules in part:
- Implement new definitions of what lands are “eligible” and “available” for leasing
- Eliminate the $5 per acre nomination fee
- Require the BLM to make eligible lands ”available for leasing” within 18 months of their nomination by industry and prohibit the BLM from adopting new stipulations or mitigation measures during the lease sales
- Extend drilling permit terms from 3 to 4 years
The first two rule amendments are effective immediately as of August 1, and a public comment period is now open for the second two rules. Comments can be submitted until September 2, 2025 via the Federal eRulemaking Portal: https://www.regulations.gov. Search the Docket Numbers “BLM-2025-0140” or “BLM-2025-0136”.
These rule amendments will lead to larger lease sales without any fees to the industries profiting off Montana’s public lands, putting critical water resources and keynote fish and wildlife habitat in the Big Hole, Beaverhead, and Centennial valleys at greater risk, including threatening native Cutthroat and Arctic Grayling habitat. Fracking is particularly inappropriate in areas like the Big Hole valley, where the river and landscape are already facing challenges from pollution to low flows to historically low fish populations.
Despite the BLM’s multiple-use mandate and its own stated priority ‘to ensure that [the federal oil and gas program] serves the public interest and restores balance on America’s public lands and waters,’ for decades, the BLM has prioritized the oil and gas program over all other uses of public lands. Further, BLM’s own and independent analysis found the public lands currently prioritized for oil and gas leasing have low or very low development potential, yet the threat remains.
Continued oil and gas leasing and development would undermine hunting and angling in Beaverhead County, which generates more than $167 million each year for the regional economy and was responsible for the creation of over 1,400 jobs, accounting for over 12% of the county’s entire workforce.
Waterkeeper and the local community have stood up to industrial oil and gas development in southwest Montana, beat back attempts by industry and the BLM to lease and allow development in this sensitive area, and requested updates to the area’s management plans. Still, the threat returns under the new amendments proposed by Trump’s Interior Sec. Doug Burgum.