API's Jack Gerard comments on Utah lease sale

Cathy Landry | 202-682-8122 | landryc@api.org

WASHINGTON, June 24, 2009 - The U.S. Bureau of Land Management on June 23 suspended the sale of all 31 oil and natural gas drilling tracts in Utah that had been purchased earlier in the day during a regularly scheduled lease sale, after the bureau accepted last-minute protests about the sale from two environmental groups. BLM has put all the leases on hold to conduct an environmental assessment.

“While we appreciate the need to address all protests to proposed lease sales, the deviation from the set procedures by accepting the late protests does not promote confidence that the Obama administration is committed to an orderly and predictable lease sale process that allows development of energy resources that belong to the American people. This apparent policy of delaying oil and natural gas development - which flies in the face of public sentiment that favors greater access to domestic oil and natural gas resources - serves as a disincentive to companies who are willing to spend billions of dollars in America to hire American workers to produce American fuel for the American consumer.”