Salazar orders BLM to reject bids on 77 Utah leases
Posted in Bailouts, Constitution, Democratic Party, Energy, Financial Crisis, Freedom, Global Warming and Climate Change, Income Taxes, Lobbyists / Special Interests, Public Concerns, Republic, Senate, U.S. Government, congress, economy, rights, taxation on Feb 5th, 2009 1 Comment »
“The 77 parcels that the Bush administration offered on the doorsteps of some of our national icons raised several troubling questions. I have directed the BLM not to accept the bids. We will take time to review the processes behind their inclusion in the lease sale,” he told reporters in a teleconference.
Salazar indicated that he does not expect his decision to be legally challenged. “The government contract is not formally completed until the BLM accepts the bids, which has not happened in this case,” he said. Payments for the winning bids on the 77 parcels will be returned and leasing will proceed on the 39 remaining tracts from the sale, he added.
The decision was the secretary’s second action involving a BLM oil and gas lease sale in less than a week. He ordered the DOI agency on Feb. 2 to remove eight tracts from a Feb. 3 lease sale after Wyoming Gov. Dave Freudenthal expressed concerns about them (OGJ Online, Feb. 4, 2009). The offering of 137 remaining parcels went ahead as scheduled, raising nearly $2.4 million from the sale of leasing rights and from rental fees on 112 parcels.
