Has the U.S Bureau of Land Management been reading science fiction? The novel (and now movie) “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” opens with the main character, pajama-clad Arthur Dent, standing in front of his house as bulldozers are about to crush it. In the story, the local bureaucracy expected Dent to learn about the plan by reading a notice posted in an obscure government office. The scene pokes fun at the bureaucratic mindset.
But in Colorado, no one is laughing. The BLM tried to auction oil and gas leases on 34,000 acres without telling the 46 private individuals who own the properties. While the BLM says it followed the law, it clearly ignored common sense and basic courtesy.
How can that happen? As the West got settled, the federal government sold land to settlers but kept the mineral rights. Because of this so-called “split estate,” Uncle Sam can sell “subsurface” mineral leases on lands that are otherwise privately owned. The practice has become more controversial with the Bush administration’s energy development push. This year, Wyoming passed a law giving landowners more say in split estate cases, but Colorado’s legislature rejected a similar proposal. Our lawmakers should reconsider the issue next year.
The BLM won’t notify landowners that mineral rights under their properties are going to be sold. Instead, citizens must check BLM’s website to stay atop matters. But the site has been down for a month, so landowners have no easy way to check if their properties (mostly ranches) are imminently slated for oil and gas leasing.
The BLM says the law only requires it to post the information at its headquarters and field offices. The agency also says landowners should read its obtuse area resource management plan – a document that doesn’t specify when and at what prices leases will be offered. So just in the past few days did 46 landowners learn the BLM planned to sell leases under their properties – at an auction scheduled for today.
U.S. Rep. John Salazar, a Western Slope Democrat, asked the BLM to delay auctioning the parcels until the next lease sale in August. Salazar doesn’t oppose energy development but thinks landowners are entitled to adequate notice.
Yesterday, the BLM backpedaled – but just a little. It will delay auctioning 14 properties but proceed with leasing out the other 32. That’s not enough. The BLM should postpone split estate lease auctions that normally would have been listed on the malfunctioning website. And in the future, the BLM should directly warn landowners whose properties are targeted for oil and gas development.
“Hitchhiker’s Guide” ends as the galactic bureaucracy is set to bulldoze Earth, notice having been posted in a government office light-years away. Does the BLM envision a similar fate for the West?
