Comments closed September 10
Stop Wyoming BLM oil and gas leasing in early 2027
Bureau of Land Management · BLM Wyoming public lands, WY
- What
- BLM would auction Wyoming public land parcels to oil and gas companies for fossil fuel extraction.
- Where
- BLM Wyoming public lands, WY
- How much
- Wildlife habitat and recreation areas on Wyoming public lands face industrial drilling development.
- Decided
- Comments closed September 10, 2026. No decision document is on file yet.Date from BLM ePlanning project page ↗, read August 12, 2026.
Where these four lines come from
- WhatOur plain-English read of the BLM NEPA Register DOI-BLM-WY-0000-2026-0009-EA ↗. Check it against the agency’s own words under Case.
- WhereThe places and states the notice names, as PLAN read them.
- How muchThe first sentence of our What’s at risk read of the notice; the whole read is under Case.
- DecidedSeptember 10, 2026, from BLM ePlanning project page, its public participation period ↗. Read August 12, 2026. The decision document is the one on file in PLAN’s record.
- Read from PLAN’s record November 9, 2026.
What the proposal said, and what the decision did
No figure from the proposal has been checked against the decision on this fight yet. What the record does hold is the issues ledger below.
No decision document is on PLAN’s record for this fight yet. When the agency’s decision lands, what it answered goes here.
PLAN's read: high threat
BLM would auction Wyoming public land parcels to oil and gas companies for fossil fuel extraction.
What’s at risk
If this goes through
Our plain-English read of the official notice ↗. Check it against the agency’s own words below.
The agency’s own analysis
What the notice says, and what it leaves out
The window has closed; the record of what was missing stays.
The agency says
“The intent of the scoping period is to receive public comments to assist in identifying resources of concern.”
The notice states that 328 parcels covering 427,701.41 acres are posted for scoping, but it provides no parcel-level description of the resources present on those parcels -- no mention of watersheds, wildlife habitat, cultural sites, or surface ownership.
The agency says
“Acreage subject to change based on further adjudication, analysis, and/or comments.”
The scoping period runs only 30 days, from August 11 to September 10, 2026, for 328 parcels totaling over 427,000 acres.
The agency says
“This includes preliminary parcel stipulations that may change upon further review.”
The notice states that preliminary parcel stipulations may change upon further review, but provides no information about what stipulations are currently attached to which parcels, what criteria govern changes, or when final stipulations will be made public before the lease sale.
The agency says
“A preliminary list, or scoping list, of parcels is posted on ePlanning for a 30-day public scoping period (43 CFR § 3120.42(a)).”
The notice references 43 CFR section 3120.42(a) as the basis for the 30-day scoping period but provides no analysis of whether that regulatory minimum satisfies NEPA's requirement for meaningful public participation given the scale of this sale.
The agency says
“BLM analyzes these concerns and uses them to develop a range of alternative management strategies.”
The notice provides no information about the National Historic Preservation Act Section 106 consultation process for any of the 328 parcels, and no mention of Tribal consultation under NHPA or NEPA for a sale covering more than 427,000 acres in Wyoming, a state with multiple federally recognized Tribes with treaty rights and cultural interests.
The groups on this fight
4 groups predicted likely to care in Wyoming
Predicted likely to care is a guess from the group's sourced work in Wyoming, with no link to this decision. Give straight to them; nothing routes through us.
- Western Watersheds Project
Predicted likely to care · a guess
Adobe Town WSA, Wyoming: Co-plaintiff in the federal appeal challenging BLM's plan to cut the Adobe Town herd management area roughly in half as part of the largest wild horse removal ever attempted in the Wyoming checkerboard.
- Wyoming Outdoor Council
Predicted likely to care · a guess
Red Desert (Wyoming BLM), Wyoming: Leading opposition to BLM's 2025 reopening of the just-finalized Rock Springs RMP, with program director Alec Underwood arguing the Golden Triangle and Big Sandy Foothills are too special to lease and develop.
- Wyoming Wilderness Association
Predicted likely to care · a guess
Red Desert (Wyoming BLM), Wyoming: Engaged in the Rock Springs RMP revision since 2011, submitting formal comments and coalition advocacy for roughly 1.6 million acres of ACEC protections across the Red Desert.
- Yellowstone Forever
Predicted likely to care · a guess
Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, Wyoming: A nonprofit partner of Yellowstone National Park.
Every group above is on STAND for Public Lands, with its court record, its filings and who backs it.
Who signs it
The notice names no signer PLAN could read. PLAN names a decision-maker only when the document names one.
The ground
The window has closed, so there’s no watch to set on it here.
The photograph on this page: Greater sage-grouse displaying on a lek in sagebrush country. It’s the country this decision sits in, not the site itself. More Than Just Parks.
In court on this ground
This fight isn’t bound to a land unit in PLAN’s record yet, so there are no court cases to show for its ground.
Who holds the vote
PLAN’s record doesn’t tie a member of Congress to this fight yet. The scorecard grades the votes and bills that decide public lands; nothing joins a vote or a bill to this decision, so there’s no member to name here without guessing.
See how your members vote ↗BLM ePlanningWe track this on the agency’s own system of record, where most on-the-ground decisions live.
Know an open comment period we are missing, or spotted a wrong deadline? .
More fights that need you
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Every representative, graded on the votes that decide the fate of parks, forests, and refuges.
Open ↗The mapSee the places under active threat
A live map of the parks, monuments, and wild country in the crosshairs right now.
Open ↗A wrong fact, a dead link, a form that wouldn’t take your letter: one tap and it comes to the people who build PLAN, with this fight attached.