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Oppose the BLM Proposed Rule on Onshore Oil and Gas Leasing
The Trump administration isn't just trying to drill on our public lands — it's trying to rewrite the rulebook so Big Oil can drill faster, cheaper, and with less public oversight. Everywhere. Forever. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has proposed gutting the federal regulations that govern the entire onshore oil and gas leasing program, not just in California, but across every acre of public land in the country. This is one of the most sweeping federal rollbacks of public lands protections in a generation. Here's what they're actually proposing: Cleanup bonds slashed to almost nothing. Right now, companies must post a $150,000 bond per lease to guarantee they'll pay to clean up when they're done. This proposal cuts that to $10,000 — a 93% reduction. The statewide bond drops from $500,000 to $25,000 — a 95% reduction. If a company walks away from its wells, taxpayers eat the difference. An independent analysis found that weakening federal bonding requirements could leave taxpayers on the hook for up to $753 billion in cleanup costs nationwide. Sacred sites, wildlife habitat, and cultural resources: no longer screened before leasing. The rule eliminates the pre-lease screening criteria that currently require BLM to weigh cultural sites, wildlife habitat, and conservation value before deciding which parcels to offer. Gone. Unsold land can get leased anyway. The proposal facilitates the One Big Beautiful Bill Act’s reinstatement of "noncompetitive leasing," allowing parcels that no one bids on at auction to be leased anyway. Your right to comment: gutted. The public currently has up to 90 days to weigh in on a proposed lease sale. This rule cuts that to a single 10-day protest period and eliminates the two other 30-day comment windows outright. And if your protest runs longer than 50 pages — even because it includes peer-reviewed science — you'll now pay $1 for each page over. Royalties cut. Permits extended. Leasing quotas mandated. This proposed rule cements into regulation what Congress passed in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act: a royalty rate cut from 16.67% to 12.5%, drilling permits extended from 3 to 4 years, and mandatory lease sales every year, whether or not the land should be leased. Urge BLM to withdraw this proposed rule in its entirety and maintain the existing protections, which represent meaningful progress toward accountability, fiscal responsibility, and transparent management of our shared public lands.
