BLM says it will not do environmental impact statements for oil, gas in NM

By Hannah Grover

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management will no longer conduct environmental impact statements evaluating decisions about oil and gas leasing on approximately 3.5 million acres of federal lands in seven states, including New Mexico.

The BLM is issuing a notice in the Federal Register rescinding a past notice of intent to conduct environmental impact statements for more than 3,000 oil and gas leases that were sold during 74 individual lease sales.

The other states included in the BLM’s announcement Thursday were Colorado, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah and Wyoming.

The past notice of intent, which was published on Jan. 16, stated that the environmental analysis for some of the leasing decisions that would be reviewed were challenged in court by groups like WildEarth Guardians. 

“The BLM may elect to include additional analysis in the EIS for resources and impacts beyond greenhouse gas emissions, climate change, and the social cost of greenhouse gases,” the January notice states.

Four days after that notice of intent was published in the Federal Register, President Donald Trump issued an executive order declaring an energy emergency. Trump’s executive order was followed by a secretarial order by Interior Secretary Doug Burgum. 

Both orders seek to increase oil and gas production while bypassing environmental safeguards.

The Trump administration maintains that regulatory barriers such as environmental impact statements are hampering production of American fossil fuels.

According to a Thursday press release, the BLM is evaluating options to remain in compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act while sidestepping the lengthy environmental impact statement process.

“The Department and the Bureau of Land Management remain committed to responsibly developing energy on public lands,” the BLM states in the press release.

The Permian Basin in New Mexico and Texas is the leading oil producing region in the country.

The BLM previously estimated it would take between six and eight months following an initial scoping period to develop a draft environmental impact statement. After the draft document was published, the public would have had 45 days to comment on it and then the BLM would develop a final environmental impact statement, which could have taken another six months to complete.

It is not uncommon for the environmental impact statement process to stretch on for years.

One reason that the process takes so long is that it reviews a wide range of potential impacts including public health, ecosystems and cultural resources.

Meanwhile, the oil futures market plummeted this month as Trump announced sweeping tariffs. The West Texas Intermediate crude oil opened the day Thursday trading at under $60 a barrel. At the start of the month, the WTI futures market was trading at more than $70 a barrel and, a year ago, it was trading at about $85 a barrel.

Natural gas has also seen a decline on the futures market.

The decline in the prices could create challenges for producers in New Mexico. Oil executives responding to the Dallas Fed Energy Survey for the first quarter of 2025 said they need the WTI to be trading at $65 a barrel for it to remain profitable to drill new wells.

To cover the costs of existing wells, the oil executives say the WTI needs to be trading at about $41 a barrel.