The U.S. Bureau of Land Management announced Thursday, August 28th, that it will resume auctioning oil and gas leases on federal land in California. The resumption of leasing, halted in 2012, was made possible by a scientific study showing no instances of harm caused by hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) and other well stimulation activities.
Leasing activity will begin in 2015, the agency said.
Auctions of leases stopped after the agency was sued by the Center for Biological Diversity and the Sierra Club, which claimed the BLM had failed to consider environmental effects of drilling.
The BLM announcement said the change reflected the findings of a study by the California Council on Science and Technology (CCST), a research organization established by the state legislature to advise regulators and legislators. The study was peer reviewed by the US Geological Survey.
The CCST study noted that it did not have complete information about the effects of fracking. Its investigators did not have enough data to determine whether the quality of groundwater near many fracked wells was affected by that activity. It could not find toxicity information about a third of the chemicals used in fracking. Few of those chemicals, it said, have been evaluated for their long-term effects on plants and animals.
Opponents of fracking criticized the BLM’s move. The Center for Biological Diversity issued a statement saying that, because of “huge data gaps” in the CCST report, resumption of leasing “is illogical and illegal.”
However, the BLM statement defended the study. “The authors of this report possess a wide range of technical expertise relative to advanced petroleum production and its impacts,” said Jim Kenna, BLM California State Director.
“Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the Pacific Institute conducted the review, analysis, and synthesis of existing data and scientific literature regarding well stimulation in California. The U.S. Geological Survey conducted a peer review of the report, in addition to the already rigorous CCST peer review process,” Kenna said.
As part of future leasing activity, BLM field offices will ask oil and gas operators to provide information required under provisions of California Senate Bill 4.