WildEarth Guardians

Wednesday, May 24, 2017
Appeal Filed to Defend Nevada Public Lands, Climate From Fracking

Trump's Bureau of Land Management Wants to Give Away 200,000 Acres to Oil and Gas Industry
Contact: Jeremy Nichols, (303) 437-7663, jnichols@wildearthguardians.org

Reno, NV—WildEarth Guardians today moved to overturn the Trump Administration’s plans to sell nearly 200,000 acres of Nevada public lands to the oil and gas industry for fracking.

“This is about preventing President Trump from liquidating our public lands and our climate,” said Jeremy Nichols, Climate and Energy Program Director for WildEarth Guardians.  “Whether it’s selling them outright or leasing them to the oil and gas industry, Americans are losing their public lands and their right to a safe and healthy climate.”

In an administrative appeal (called a protest) filed today with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, Guardians challenged the agency’s plans to auction off 195,653 acres of public lands in Nye, Eureka, and Lander Counties on June 13.  The lands include vast expanses of public lands in the Big Smoky Valley and near the Ruby Mountains.

The lands will be sold to industry for as little as $2.00 an acre.  If sold, companies would have a right to drill and frack.  Even if they don’t develop oil and gas, companies would still effectively own the lands, controlling access and accounting for them as assets.  Companies would have rights to the lands for 10 or more years.

The plans come even the Nevada has very little oil and gas development potential.  Only 2% of all public lands that have been auctioned off the oil and gas industry in the past are even producing oil and gas.  According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, in 2015 there were only three producing oil wells and one producing natural gas well in the state.  Most of the state is considered to have low to no oil and gas potential.

Only 640 acres of the nearly 200,000 slated for auction are in proximity to a producing oil well.  These acres are in the Railroad Valley, the only area of Nevada where oil and gas production currently occurs.

“This isn’t about energy or producing oil and gas, it’s about President Trump and his Bureau of Land Management putting our public lands into the hands of the fracking industry,” said Nichols.  “This latest oil and gas proposal is nothing more than a scam to pad industry’s assets.”

Guardians’ appeal challenges the Bureau of Land Management for accommodating industry speculation and public lands hoarding, as well targets the agency’s failure to account for the climate implications of authorizing more fossil fuel production.  The appeal calls on the agency to cancel its lease sale.

Click here to view an interactive map showing the location of the proposed leases.

The Bureau of Land Management is expected to respond to Guardians’ appeal on or shortly after June 13, 2017.