Wyoming has narrowed its definitions for who can bid on state oil and gas lease parcels, disqualifying parties that intend to conserve the land rather than produce the mineral resources.
The change, made under emergency rulemaking in June, was mandated by House Bill 141 – State land oil and gas leases-operator requirement, which the Legislature passed during the budget session. Rep. Cyrus Western (R-Big Horn) brought the bill on behalf of the Petroleum Association of Wyoming. The association raised concerns over the state’s vetting process after the Lander-based conservation group Wyoming Outdoor Council last July placed bids on a state oil and gas lease parcel in Sublette County intending to spare it from development.
If a small Wyoming conservation group can bid to block energy development, a conservation- or anti-oil-and-gas-minded billionaire could do the same, the trade association argued.
“So rather than wait for that to happen, we thought, ‘Well, let’s step in now and let’s put in place a bill that acts as a deterrent to doing that,” Petroleum Association of Wyoming President Pete Obermueller told WyoFile.
Ultimately, the winning bidder in last year’s controversial auction was Casper-based Kirkwood Oil and Gas — the same company that had nominated the parcel — at $19 per acre for the 640-acre tract. When the company later learned that it had been competing against a conservation group, the owners cried foul and claimed they were duped into paying an artificially inflated price.
The Wyoming Outdoor Council defends its actions.
Yes, council leaders say, the organization did bid on the controversial “Parcel 194.” But it didn’t skirt the rules or misrepresent its identity. The group expected that, if it was the winning bidder, it would pay about $12,000 for the lease (based on its $18 per acre bid) out of its own budget, according to Wyoming Outdoor Council Executive Director Carl Fisher. No well-heeled individual was on standby to finance the purchase, he told WyoFile.
The bidding controversy, he said, misses the larger issue: a lack of commitment by the state to implement its own policies that were crafted years ago to avert such conflicts in wildlife migration corridors.
Path of the Pronghorn
Kirkwood Oil and Gas had nominated a state lease parcel, 194, smack in the middle of the Path of the Pronghorn — a popular name for the long-distance migration of the Sublette Pronghorn Herd. It’s part of one of the most studied ungulate migration routes in North America, and the Path of the Pronghorn portion of the route is so named because it represents a “bottleneck” — an area squeezed due to rural development and landscape features.
And, critically, according to the council, Parcel 194 bisects the New Fork River where pronghorn cross.
Given the years of high-profile studies and discussions regarding the Path of the Pronghorn and many other well-documented ungulate migration routes in Wyoming, the group didn’t expect the state would OK oil and gas lease parcel nominations in the area for its competitive lease auction.
“To our surprise, they were going to offer an oil and gas lease directly in one of the most important spots where, like, thousands of these members of the Sublette pronghorn herd are crossing the New Fork River,” said Alec Underwood, the council’s program director.
In the weeks before the auction, the council and other conservation groups implored state officials and the Wyoming Game and Fish Department to intervene and convince the Office of State Lands and Investments to remove Parcel 194 and others inside the Path of the Pronghorn from the auction, according to Fisher. But the parcels were not removed.
At that point, Fisher said, the council felt it had no other choice.
“We had a conversation just to say, ‘Well, if we can’t get the parcel removed, and if we do qualify as a bidder in the process, we should engage in the process and put our money where our mouth is and bid to protect the parcel and the corridor,'” Fisher said.
Delayed protections
The state had already anticipated such conflicts.
Gov. Mark Gordon signed an executive order in 2020 outlining general protections for designated wildlife migration corridors and directed the Wyoming Game and Fish Department to develop a set of specific migration corridor policies to avoid activities that might disturb the critical pathways. But the state, under pressure from industry, still has not bestowed official designations to several migration corridors, which leaves the Path of the Pronghorn open to development without the state’s stipulations — although the years-long designation process is formally underway.
In the immediate wake of the July 2023 bidding controversy, Wyoming Game and Fish Department officials collaborated with the Office of State Lands and Investments to propose adding stipulations to Parcel 194 preventing industrial activity during spring and fall migrations.
But the State Board of Land Commissioners, made of the state’s top five elected officials, declined the proposal.
For its part, Kirkwood Oil and Gas discounts the need to significantly restrict industrial activities in migration corridors — the industry has a stellar track record of producing oil and gas without detrimental impacts to wildlife, the company’s Land Manager Steve Degenfelder said. The industry continually refines best practices for habitat mitigation, he added.
Kirkwood didn’t nominate Parcel 194 because it is in the Path of the Pronghorn, he told WyoFile. It nominated the parcel, and others in the area, because the company is trying to piece together a block of lease tracts on the western flank of the prolific Pinedale Anticline natural gas field.
“I hunt and fish,” Degenfelder said. “I value the attributes of Wyoming, both monetary and wildlife, and our standard of living with great respect. I think that we can accomplish both of them at the same time.”
Research, however, shows that pronghorn have avoided and abandoned the Anticline gas field.
The state’s new definitions for qualified bidders went into effect just before an oil and gas lease auction that began July 8. The online auction, which is managed by Texas-based EnergyNet, was extended to Wednesday due to disruptions caused by Hurricane Beryl.
The Office of State Lands and the Legislature should be well aware of their Constitutional duty to maximize returns on state lands for the good of the treasury. The high lease bid is the final word on this — NOT some wild speculation by shills for Texas oil interests. The highest bid assures immediate return to the State. Shameless promotion of Texas oil interests by Wyoming officials, at the expense of the priceless wildlife resource, should be grounds for impeachment.
Since we now ‘enjoy’ the legal fiction that money is free speech . . . is it likely barring conservation groups from paying for leases not a violation of their First Amendment freedom of speech?
If it’s already proven the pronghorn’s avoid an abandoned area, why do this? I understand the need for energy production, but I cry foul when bills are introduced to block certain groups. It’s always about the money.
Why does the state Wyoming care if conservation groups buy parcels of land and then don’t “develop” it (drill for oil, build roads, pollute it, cause air pollution) or otherwise “make progress” on it? How is cutting of migration routes or creating an open pit mine or doing some other thing that hurts the land, air or wildlife considered progress?
The state of Wyoming will still get their money from the land sale one way or another whether it’s from the Dirty Energy industry or from a conservation group buying the parcel of land.
Because the state of Wyoming wants the tax dollars from whatever industry makes money from the land from extracting gas, oil, coal, etc. from the land.
Leaving the land alone and not developing it doesn’t generate tax income for the politicians who banned conservationist groups from acquiring the land.
Denying conservation groups from bidding on land isn’t for the betterment of the land or air or wildlife. It’s about the betterment of the politicians bank accounts and not upsetting their voters and the businesses that bribe them (campaign contributions) to stay in their favor and stay in business.
100% agree. This is politically motivated and not in the best interests of WY. Ignore years of research and disrupt wildlife that may never recover.
Another instance of the GOP Nanny state, where the Republicans pick winners and losers, not let the market set the price, but they give their political contributors get sweetheart deals, while the obligation to get the best price for a natural resource goes away.
Gotta love this Republican backed free market /s
These leases are a joke in price. Hey oil and gas pay 13 cents and you can make millions of dollars of land that dont belong to you.. this country is failing guys.. give it all to the big business, stupid that we elect these fools.
WOC bid on Parcel 194 simply because the SLIB and the State of Wyoming exhibited a “lack of commitment on the part of the State to implement its own policies.” This parcel should never have progressed to the actual auction process. The best available science which Wyoming Game and Fish had meticulously collected for about 40 years was ignored in favor of the energy industry – again. I remember how the premier sage grouse habitat in the whole US was opened up by allowing ” off site mitigation ” which proved a failure. Make no mistake, State government will find a way to circumvent policies on sage grouse and migration corridors in order for industrial development to proceed – there’s always a way around the policies in Wyoming. Same people that were willing to open up the school sections near Jackson instead of preserving the land for future generations. Game and Fish generates the science but seems to be afraid to make solid recommendations on protecting habitats – wildlife is a distant second to the oil and gas industry in Wyoming – but, when you pay almost 70% of the taxes you obviously get your way and special treatment. This stinks to high heaven.
I guess that 10,000 wells aren’t enough. Apparently, Mule Deer and Pronghorn in the Green River Basin don’t matter. Kirkwood’s and others profits are all that are important. At least when the wildlife is gone there won’t be any annoying obstacles to full drill-out.
A very free market. Corrupt state politicians rig the system to guarantee their financial sponsors win leases. Corporate socialism at its finest. WY picks up speed down the slippery slope.
once again, pollution and oil and gas win over wildlife. Someday, when there are no antelope left, people will see the folly.
Did the Secretary of Public Education recuse herself from the vote denying the additional stipulations proposed by G&F?
Does the state have a tax on all oil extracted from the ground? If not it makes no sense for them to exclude conservation groups from bidding.
It sounds very discriminatory to me. Having an auction but only allowing the people you want to win the auction to bid?
If you’re putting up Oil & Gas leases, is it not logical that an Oil/Gas company should win it?
The state is making the lease available because it expects to derive revenue from it.
It’s not going to get revenue if someone else besides and Oil/Gas company wins the auction.
Whose logic are you using???
If your argument was true, there would be a time limit set, or an increasing lease payment every year until production starts. What this is, is a way to keep the price of oil & gas leaves cheaper and allow energy companies to tie up resources in perpetuity in speculation, and to shortchange the Wyoming taxpayer to benefit their campaign contributors, and the lobbyists that wine and dine them.
WOC should sue the State to test the legitimacy of this policy. It violates the State’s sovereign public trust duty to protect wildlife.
I really hope they will do just that! What a disgrace to degrade this important corridor for these pronghorn!!
Yes, Robert, I was just wondering if a maneuver to forbid an entity of any kind from bidding is legal?
CRUDE OIL!!! Greatest ORGANIC gift given to mankind!!
It’ll be the death of us overpopulated morons, too, if nuclear war doesn’t do the job for it.
Harvey. If you feel we overpopulated. Feel free to remove yourself and all off spring from the population. Don’t just talk about problem. Do something positive about it.
Good for WOC!