Judge: BLM must disclose oil, gas firms’ names

http://fuelfix.com/blog/2013/02/15/judge-blm-must-disclose-oil-gas-firms-names/



Colo. Oil and gas drilling in Colorado is no longer confined to the state's most rural areas. Energy companies are moving to drill in populous Front Range communities prompting local planners to suggest regulations that energy companies complaints far exceed county authority. Politicians from both parties are calling for legislation clarifying that locals can't set their own rules when it comes to drilling.

Judge: BLM must disclose oil, gas firms’ names
Posted on February 15, 2013 at 6:38 am

DENVER — A federal judge is reversing a 1995 policy and ordering the Bureau of Land Management to disclose who nominates parcels for the federal government to be leased for oil and gas development.

Companies can nominate certain parcels for the BLM to sell at a lease auction, and under a longstanding policy, the agency kept their names secret until two days after an auction.

The BLM said disclosing the identities, which it considered to contain commercial or financial information that is privileged or confidential, could prompt competitors to bid against nominators who have spent time investigating the acreage in question.

“That contention runs directly contrary to the purpose of the public sale process,” U.S. District Court Senior Judge Richard Matsch said in a ruling Wednesday. “Competition in bidding advances the purpose of getting a fair price for a lease of publicly owned minerals.”