The Trump administration has proposed dramatically cutting the amount of time the general public has to offer input on new oil and gas leases, slashing participation periods by more than half.
If approved, the proposed revision to the Interior Department’s oil and gas policy would significantly limit public comment on future leasing and favor developers looking to drill wells more quickly.
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It marks the latest effort by the Trump administration to expand fossil fuel production in the United States to meet surging energy demands caused by increased manufacturing, data centers running artificial intelligence, and increased exports of domestic oil and gas.
The Interior Department announced on Monday two coordinated regulatory actions focused on “modernizing federal onshore oil and gas policy,” specifically revising the agency’s oil and gas leasing rule and the waste prevention rule.
The agency said the changes would “eliminate unnecessary administrator barriers.”
The administration appears to consider public participation one of these barriers, as the Interior Department has proposed shortening the public participation period from 90 days to just 10.
Under the current rules, the Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management is required to provide a scoping period of no less than 30 days, allowing for public comment on the preliminary list of tracts of land to be made available in a lease sale. The agency is also required to draft a National Environmental Policy Act document for a lease sale, providing an additional comment period of no less than 30 days. After a notice for the lease sale is published, the BLM is then required to provide a protest period of no less than 30 calendar days to allow for additional public input. In total, this amounts to at least 90 days of public participation.
The Interior Department confirmed to the Washington Examiner that the proposed change would eliminate the scoping and NEPA comment periods and shorten the protest period.
The administration has also proposed ending bonding requirements imposed under former President Joe Biden, which increased the minimum for new oil and gas leases from $10,000 to $150,000. Statewide bonds were also increased to a minimum of $500,000, up from $25,000. The Trump administration said it is proposing returning to the $25,000 standard.
“Energy Dominance requires regulatory clarity,” Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said. “These targeted updates cut through the red tape that has historically deterred investment, ensuring our public lands remain a reliable engine for economic growth and innovation.”
The proposed rule would also authorize noncompetitive leases after competitive auctions, remove the expression-of-interest leasing preference review, seek input on current bond amounts, modernize filing fees, provide replacement lease sales for previously canceled or delayed ones, and limit lease suspension approvals to one year.
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As for the agency’s waste prevention rule, the Interior Department is proposing to cut compliance costs by eliminating requirements for waste minimization plans and self-certification statements in drilling permit applications, replacing sundry notice evaluations, and defining avoidable and unavoidable losses.
The proposed rule will be open to a 60-day public comment period once published in the Federal Register.
