ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.—A coalition of sportsmen and environmental groups is challenging the U.S. Bureau of Land Management’s quarterly oil and natural gas lease sale on Earth Day, saying the agency is failing to address concerns about global warming.
The coalition has filed an administrative protest with the agency’s office in New Mexico, highlighting 52 parcels that cover more than 44,000 acres in the state. BLM is also offering parcels in Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas during Wednesday’s sale.
The protest is the latest in a series of challenges filed by environmentalists over the past year that target the agency’s response to greenhouse gas emissions and global warming. The coalition accuses BLM of not considering the cumulative impacts of emissions from oil and gas development before deciding whether to lease parcels.
Erik Schlenker-Goodrich of the Western Environmental Law Center said Tuesday the need for BLM to address emissions has become more important given a finding last week by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that carbon dioxide and five other greenhouse gases emitted by cars and many industrial plants “endanger public health and welfare.”
“We think EPA’s endangerment finding should push BLM to leverage its legal authorities to reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” Schlenker-Goodrich said. “BLM can’t do this effectively if it isn’t accounting for oil and natural gas greenhouse gas emissions in its plans and decisions.”
BLM spokesman Hans Stuart said Tuesday the agency is reviewing the challenge and the protested leases will not be issued until the challenge is resolved. A decision is expected within the next month.
The agency disputed claims that it is not addressing emissions. Stuart said the BLM and energy producers have worked over the last two decades to reduce venting and flaring by 50 percent per natural gas well in the Farmington area—home to the San Juan Basin, one of the largest natural gas fields in the nation.
The agency also conducts environmental assessments of the parcels proposed for each oil and gas sale, but the environmentalists and sportsmen argue that the assessments aren’t enough.
“We don’t deny that they’ve done some good things in the field,” Schlenker-Goodrich said. “… The question is are they taking action commensurate to the scale of the problem? We don’t think they are. We don’t need half measures at this point and I guess that’s the way I would characterize what BLM has done to date.”
The coalition contends that oil and gas production contributes about 25 percent of New Mexico’s total greenhouse gas emissions and the number of wells being drilled is expected to continue to grow.
Nearly 92,000 new oil and gas wells were drilled in Colorado, Montana, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming between 2000 and 2008 and another 120,000 wells could be drilled in the region over the next 15 years, Schlenker-Goodrich said.
In its protest, the coalition argues that global warming is having impacts on New Mexico and the rest of the Rocky Mountain West in the form of decreased snowpack, pressure on watersheds and altered wildlife migratory patterns.
“These changes … have simply not been accounted for by BLM in its management plans and environmental analyses,” the protest states.
The coalition believes BLM has an obligation to address greenhouse gas emissions from oil and gas operations. But Kathleen Sgamma, the director of government affairs for the Independent Petroleum Association of Mountain States, said the coalition is misguided in wanting the BLM to take on a regulatory role that is the responsibility of EPA.
“What they are trying to do is halt all natural gas and oil activity before we as a society and our elected representatives figure out how to address climate change and even before the scientific tools are available to reliably assess that impact,” she said.
