BLM Oil and Gas Rule rollback announced; 60-day comment period to follow

Washington D.C. (June 22, 2026) -- The Department of the Interior announced its plan to revise the BLM Oil and Gas Rule (also known as the Fluid Mineral Leases and Leasing Process Rule), which updated and improved a woefully outdated federal oil and gas leasing program that was riddled with de facto subsidies for fossil fuel companies. The Interior Department also announced its plan to roll back regulations aimed at preventing methane waste from oil and gas operations. 

When the Rule was finalized in 2024, the BLM used its existing legal authority – much of which was enacted into law thanks to the leadership of Western Senators and Members of Congress -- to make fossil fuel companies pay a fairer share for extracting public resources, cover the cost of clean-up and restoration after drilling is finished, limit participation of bad actors and put guardrails on what lands are offered for oil and gas leasing. These critical updates reflected the support of a broad majority of Western voters and lawmakers, the latter of whom passed complementary provisions in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act. 

Undermining the Rule is another attempt by the administration and its allies in Congress to use the pretense of a national “energy emergency” to open the doors wide for unrestrained drilling on public lands. 

In response to the news, Gregg DeBie, Senior Staff Attorney at The Wilderness Society said: 

“Rolling back the Oil and Gas Rule is yet another attempt by the administration to hand our freedom to access and enjoy public lands over to the oil and gas industry. Interior is knocking out critical guardrails and treating our public lands like a cheap auction house rather than a place of natural wonder that serves as more than the oil industry’s playground. This move will dirty our air, foul our streams and rob future generations from enjoying our beloved landscapes.” 

Last July, Congress passed a massive fossil fuel giveaway (the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” or “OBBBA”) that aims to hand over 200 million acres of public lands to the oil and gas industry; sharply reduces the royalties paid to the American people when fossil fuel companies deplete our natural resources; requires quarterly lease sales in every Western state regardless of industry interest; and resurrects noncompetitive leasing, in which parcels that don’t receive competitive bids can be sold for as little as $3 per acre. 

Interior’s plan to revise the Oil and Gas Rule is a giveaway to the oil and gas industry in a number of ways, including by:

• Slashing bonding rates that oil and gas companies must pay to fund clean-up and restoration costs of their projects, which means communities will have to continue footing the bill for cleaning up the mess of abandoned or orphaned wells.   
• Significantly reducing public comment periods, a critical process that allows the public to weigh in on leasing decisions that impact their communities and beyond. 
• Eliminating preference criteria that screen nominated lease parcels for conflicts— including with wildlife habitat, cultural resources, recreation and sacred sites—and that directed leasing to areas with higher oil and gas potential, to avoid purely speculative leasing, which prevents those leased lands from being managed for other, more valuable uses.   

For more information, contact Emily Denny, Senior Communications Manager, edenny@tws.org