DENVER—Federal officials have withdrawn about 33,000 acres from a Feb. 12 auction of federal energy leases in Colorado because some of the land is in roadless forest areas the state wants to protect.
Bureau of Land Management spokesman Jim Sample says oil and gas leases will be offered on nearly 100,000 acres across the state. The original total was more than 133,000 acres.
Sample said Friday that the U.S. Forest Service asked that 19 parcels of its land be withdrawn for further analysis.
The parcels are among roughly 4.4 million acres of national forest land that Colorado wants designated as roadless and made off-limits to most development.
The BLM oversees management of all federal minerals, but other federal agencies are responsible for proposing leases on land they manage.
