WildEarth Guardians

Thursday, June 8, 2017
WildEarth Guardians Condemns Trump Plans to Auction Colorado Public Lands for Fracking

73,000 Acres Slated to be Sold to Oil and Gas Industry
Contact: Jeremy Nichols, (303) 437-7663, jnichols@wildearthguardians.org

Denver—In spite of intense opposition, President Trump’s U.S. Bureau of Land Management is moving ahead today to auction off more than 73,000 acres of public lands in western Colorado for fracking, including lands in the state’s scenic North Park.

“President Trump is sadly pulling out all the stops to put our public lands into the hands of the oil and gas industry,” said Jeremy Nichols, Climate and Energy Program Director for WildEarth Guardians.  “Not only are we losing landscapes, we’re losing wildlife habitat, our ability to secure a clean energy future, and our means of safeguarding the climate.”

The Bureau of Land Management is putting lands in Jackson, Routt, Moffat, and Rio Blanco Counties in Colorado up for auction today.  The lands include nearly 10,000 acres in Colorado’s North Park, just upstream of the Arapaho National Wildlife Refuge. 

Although some oil and gas development has occurred in North Park, industry is eyeing expanded development in this high mountain valley.

The sale will hand over the rights for the oil and gas industry to drill, frack, and develop the lands however they see fit.  In practice, selling public lands to industry effectively hands over control to private companies.

“This is nothing short of a public lands giveaway,” said Nichols.  “It confirms that for the Trump Administration, the demands of the oil and gas industry come before the needs of the American people.”

In April, the Bureau of Land Management backed down on plans to auction off nearly 30,000 acres of public lands for fracking in Grand County in response to overwhelming protests.  In spite of opposition, the agency is still moving ahead to sell lands along the Yampa River and its headwaters in Moffat and Routt Counties, along the White River in Rio Blanco County, and lands in the scenic North Park of northern Colorado.

WildEarth Guardians and others appealed the Bureau of Land Management’s fracking plans in early April.  Guardians appeal challenged the failure of the agency to account for the climate implications of authorizing more fossil fuel extraction from public lands.  A report from The Wilderness Society found that oil and gas produced from public lands accounts for 10% of all U.S. greenhouse gas emissions.

In 2016, WildEarth Guardians filed suit over the failure of the Bureau of Land Management to limit oil and gas production to protect the climate.  That suit is moving forward in federal court.  If successful, it will call into question the legal validity of today’s oil and gas sale in Colorado.