Republicans want the Obama administration to move quicker with online bidding for oil and gas leases on federal lands to avoid delays in the traditional bidding process caused by protesters.
In a meeting of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee’s interior subcomittee Wednesday, Rep. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., said she is worried that the Bureau of Land Management could cancel or postpone lease sales because of crowd size concerns.
Agency Director Neil Kornze told lawmakers about a postponed sale in Utah where hundreds of protesters were expected to show up and overwhelm the small venue where the bidding was to be held.
Lummis said she found it “abnormal” that the bureau would cancel the bidding process because of too many protesters, but pointed out that online bidding would fix that problem.
“Hopefully, that would alleviate some of the concerns you have expressed because you have had to cancel meetings because the room is too small or the weather is too bad,” she told Kornze.
Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., added that he was frustrated by the delay in implementing online bidding.
He played a video showing protesters blocking off a street outside a lease sale that included a staged collision between a car and a protester. He said the government will accommodate those people but not the energy industry.
“This is just plain crazy,” he said.
Kornze told the subcommittee the Bureau of Land Management plans to hold online bidding for oil and gas leases once this summer and twice in the fall. If those go well, online bidding would become more frequent, he said.
He said the bureau has to make sure online bidding is legal because regulations set out by the government require oral bidding.
“I can understand the desire to move faster and we’re almost there,” Kornze said.
He acknowledged Lummis’ thought that postponing the Utah event was abnormal, but chalked it up to the abnormal security situation the Bureau of Land Management has been dealing with.
He pointed to the issues with militias in Nevada and Oregon, led by the Bundy family, in which armed individuals attempt to disrupt bureau activities. A large crowd with hundreds of people trying to get into a space usually occupied by 15 or 20 people during a lease sale is dangerous, he said.
“We’re on heightened alert,” he said. “We’re concerned about safety.”
