The Wilderness Society, Rocky Mountain Wild, Wild Montana, Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks, National Audubon Society, Audubon Rockies, and Friends of the Earth respectfully protest all parcels in the June 2022 Competitive Oil and Gas Lease Sales.
The Environmental Assessment, Finding of No Significant Impact, and accompanying documents contain several major flaws that undergird this protest and counsel withdrawal of parcels from these lease sales.
As an initial matter, the Department of the Interior’s reasoning that it must proceed with lease sales to remain “[i]n compliance with an injunction from the Western District of Louisiana,”1See, e.g., U.S. DEP’T OF THE INTERIOR, INTERIOR DEPARTMENT ANNOUNCES SIGNIFICANTLY REFORMED ONSHORE OIL AND GAS LEASE SALES (Apr. 15, 2022), https://www.doi.gov/pressreleases/interior-department-announces-significantly-reformed-onshore-oil-and-gas-lease-sales. is incorrect. The preliminary injunction order issued by the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana does not require holding any lease sales.
Read the June 2022 lease sale protest for the proposed sale of 9 parcels containing 5275.82 acres in Colorado.
Read the June 2022 lease sale protest for the proposed sale of 23 parcels containing 3405.80 acres in Montana/Dakotas.