The Bureau of Land Management is opening up 5,276 acres of federal land for oil and gas extraction in Colorado.

The nine parcels lie in Jackson, Moffat, Rio Blanco and Weld counties. Other than a 120-acre parcel 14 miles east of Eaton in Weld County, they are all in northwest Colorado in areas where drillers have previously extracted oil and gas, federal officials said.

Bureau of Land Management to resume new oil & gas lease sales

The auction will be held June 16, a year and a day after U.S. District Judge Terry A. Doughty issued a preliminary injunction in a lawsuit filed by 13 states, not including Colorado, against President Joe Biden’s order to shut down oil and gas leasing nationwide. 

“We will review the proposed lease sale details when they become available as federal leases are a minor part of the state’s production and there are thousands of unused state leases,” said Conor Cahill, spokesman for Gov. Jared Polis.

Lynn Granger, executive director of the American Petroleum Institute of Colorado, said: “Colorado’s energy resources are a long-term strategic asset that strengthens our national security and fuels our economy.”

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Abigail Dillen, president of environmental group Earthjustice, said: “Any new leasing must meaningfully incorporate environmental justice and climate impacts. … The best available science already shows that we cannot continue leasing on our public lands and meet President Biden’s stated climate goals.”

The Department of the Interior says it is reducing by 80% the number of onshore parcels nominated by oil and gas producers for leasing.

“For too long, the federal oil and gas leasing programs have prioritized the wants of extractive industries above local communities, the natural environment, the impact on our air and water, the needs of Tribal Nations, and, moreover, other uses of our shared public lands,” Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland said in a statement.

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Late last year, 80 million acres of offshore resources in the Gulf of Mexico went up for auction.

The Bureau of Land Management also said it is increasing the royalty rate on extracted resources from 12.5% to 18.75%, the first increase in royalties in decades.

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