Reinstate quarterly onshore oil and gas lease sales
What the document says“Reinstate quarterly onshore lease sales in all producing states”
The chapter asks that these follow the model of an earlier BLM instruction memorandum with the adjustment of expanded public notice and comment, and that the Administration work with Congress on legislation including the Lease Now Act.
What the document actually says“Reinstate quarterly onshore lease sales in all producing states”
Hold land sales for drilling four times a year. Do it in every state that produces.
Companies lease public land to drill. Those leases are sold at auctions. The book says the auctions should happen four times a year.
To provide for reconciliation pursuant to title II of H. Con. Res. 14
2025-07-04 · 139 Stat. 72
Section 50101 of Public Law 119-21 requires the Secretary of the Interior to immediately resume quarterly onshore oil and gas lease sales under the Mineral Leasing Act, and to hold at least four sales a year of available land in each of nine named states, with a replacement sale in the same fiscal year if one is canceled or draws no bid. Congress rather than the BLM did it: the duty names nine states rather than all producing states, it does not restore the earlier BLM instruction memorandum, and it adds no expanded public notice and comment step, which the chapter asked for as an adjustment. None of the candidates offered for this proposal sets a lease sale schedule.
The 2025 law tells the Interior Secretary to restart quarterly oil and gas lease sales on land. It requires at least four sales a year in each of nine named states. A canceled sale must be replaced the same year. But Congress did this, not the land agency, and the nine states are not all the states that drill.