Its announcement represents another disappointment for environmental groups, which have been lobbying the administration to use its discretion to cease new leasing to limit climate change, at the hands of Sen. Joe Manchin , who negotiated the law that mandated the sales.
The bureau also released an environmental assessment Friday for a separate oil and gas lease sale covering more than 10,000 acres in New Mexico and Kansas, which was announced in October and is planned for May.The bureau's new lease sale plans also cover acreage in Wyoming, and all have been announced in recent months with explicit reference to compliance with the Inflation Reduction Act, Democrats' green energy and healthcare spending bill that became law in August.
Oil and gas leasing is a priority of Manchin's, who leads the Energy and Natural Resources Committee and demanded that the leasing provisions be included in the Democratic legislation as a condition for casting the deciding vote in favor. Agreeing to the provisions was a considerable concession for other members of his party to make, as many oppose the expansion leasing and want to end the practice altogether.