By: Mary Steurer
BISMARCK, N.D. (North Dakota Monitor) – North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum on Thursday filed an appeal to a proposal by the Bureau of Land Management to make hundreds of thousands of acres of federal oil, gas and coal in the state unavailable for leasing.
The 25-page document is the state’s third attempt to push back against the federal agency’s plan. It followed a September protest letter, a consistency review filed by Burgum in October, and a response from the BLM sent to the state last month.
Burgum has since been named President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to be the next secretary of the Interior, which includes the Bureau of Land Management. He filed the appeal as one of his last acts after eight years as governor.
In the appeal, Burgum warned the proposal would reduce state oil and gas revenues by $34 million per year and eliminate thousands of coal-related jobs. Because of the unique split-estate nature of federal lands in North Dakota, it would not only hamper the resource development of BLM-managed land, but also of a significant amount of land the agency does not own, he argued.
Burgum said despite the state’s attempts at outreach, the BLM has not sincerely addressed North Dakota’s concerns about the proposal.
Sonya Germann, director of the Bureau of Land Management Montana/Dakotas State Office, in a Nov. 8 letter to Burgum said the agency has reviewed the issues previously raised by the state and did not find it necessary to change the proposed plan.
The Bureau of Land Management was not immediately available for comment Friday.
The BLM uses resource management plans to guide the use of land under its jurisdiction.
The agency in 2020 commenced the lengthy process of revising its plan for North Dakota, which hasn’t been updated since 1988.
In July, the agency unveiled its proposal for the roughly 60,000 acres of public land and more than 4 million acres of mineral estate it manages within North Dakota’s borders.
Most of that is already barred from development. The plan would prevent leasing of an additional 514,300 acres of BLM-managed coal in North Dakota, according to the appeal. It would also take more than 213,100 oil and gas acres off the table.
Burgum’s letter criticized the BLM’s plan as flawed, unscientific and an illegal encroachment upon state sovereignty.
In North Dakota, federal mineral estate is interspersed with state and private land in a checkerboard-like pattern. For this reason, the state fears that by blocking the development of federal minerals, the BLM will also prevent the development of state and private resources.
The proposal “would effectively exercise an unlawful federal veto over North Dakota’s authority to regulate the development of natural resources in the state,” Burgum wrote in his appeal.
The BLM has said its proposal will ensure its resources in North Dakota are used in a way that best aligns with federal law. The plan identifies three goals: “responsible mineral and energy development,” wildlife conservation and recreation.
The agency has disputed that the proposal will hinder access to non-BLM land, according to its November response letter to Burgum.
Resource management plan decisions “apply only to the BLM-administered lands and minerals in the planning area,” the letter states.
The BLM claims its resources will not reduce coal tax revenue for the state, and that it will have a negligible impact on oil and gas tax collections.
It wrote that federal law allows the BLM to regulate land in a way that reduces economic development in the interest of “the overall health of the public lands and resources.”
In his appeal, Burgum also called on Bureau of Land Management Director Tracy Stone-Manning to recuse herself from involvement in the resource management plan for ethics reasons.
Stone-Manning has ties to nonprofits that have interests “directly adverse” to North Dakota, said Burgum. According to the appeal, she formerly worked for the National Wildlife Federation and will soon leave the BLM to head the Wilderness Society.
The Wilderness Society, a conservation group, intervened in North Dakota’s ongoing legal challenge against a new BLM regulation on the federal agency’s side, Burgum noted.
“It would be both inappropriate and unlawful under the STOCK Act for director Stone-Manning to continue to rule on, or be involved in, disputes between North Dakota and BLM, including the one at hand,” Burgum wrote in the letter, referring to the 2012 federal legislation adopted to address insider trading.
Burgum asked the agency to “provide a meaningful response” to the criticisms of the plan he submitted in his October consistency review, as well as to adopt an alternative proposal that would keep the 1988 resource management plan in place.
There is no set deadline for the agency to respond to the appeal, John Reiten, policy advisor for the governor’s office, said Thursday during an Industrial Commission meeting.
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