Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke announced Monday he will delay an oil and gas lease sale planned this month in Montana near Yellowstone National Park, after locals protested the sale.
“After talking with residents and local, state and federal officials, we have decided to defer the oil and gas sale around Livingston #Montana,” Zinke said in a Twitter post.
The move is the second time Zinke in recent days has postponed an oil and gas lease sale after locals expressed opposition to the plans.
On Friday, Zinke postponed an oil and gas lease sale of about 25 parcels on 4,434 acres near Chaco Canyon in northern New Mexico until the agency can review the impact on cultural artifacts in the area.
Tribal groups and environmentalists protested that planned March 8 sale, arguing drilling would disrupt sites they consider culturally significant.
Among the parcels proposed for energy development by BLM in the Montana sale are two just east of Livingston, close to the Yellowstone River.
The proposed March 13 sale includes land in southeastern and north central Montana as well, totaling more than 60,000 acres.
Of that total, the Bureau of Land Management removed about 17,300 acres from the oil and gas auction, withdrawing 26 parcels from consideration, along with portions of two others.
Heather Swift, an Interior Department spokeswoman, told the Washington Examiner that local, county, state and federal officials “all reached out” to the agency with concerns about the planned sale.
Gov. Steve Bullock, a Democrat, and Sens. Steve Daines, R-Mont., and Jon Tester, D-Mont., as well as environmentalists, expressed opposition to Interior about the proposal.
Opponents of the leases argued that oil and gas drilling in the Livingston area could harm the river and the region’s tourism-based economy.
The postponement of the lease sales by Zinke reflect the challenges of implementing the Trump administration’s focus on boosting domestic energy production. The administration has also received pushback from state and local officials on its plan to massively expand offshore drilling in federal waters, and may be pressured to rein in that plan.
