Recent Developments
Federal Oil and Gas under the Second Trump Administration
In the wake of the Biden administration’s efforts to drastically diminish the federal oil and gas leasing program, the new Trump administration has started out on a diametrically-opposite tack.
(For a review of the major policy changes that occurred under the Biden administration, see this link: Biden Administration Policy Review.)
The Trump administration has taken several significant policy actions so far. None of these have yet resulted in changes to the leasing process; but the groundwork for such changes has clearly been lain:
▸ Executive Order 14148 of January 20 – Initial Rescissions of Harmful Executive Orders and Actions: Revokes certain Biden administration Executive Orders, including (among many others) No. 13990 (Protecting Public Health and the Environment and Restoring Science To Tackle the Climate Crisis); No. 14008 (Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad); No. 14027 (Establishment of the Climate Change Support Office); No. 14030 (Climate-Related Financial Risk); and No. 14082 (Implementation of the Energy and Infrastructure Provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022). The second of these, in particular, was the basis for the “pause” on federal oil and gas leasing that the Biden administration imposed. The revocation of that Executive Order eliminates the “pause” as federal policy; but time and further action are needed for this change to be translated into an increased pace of leasing.
▸ Executive Order 14153 of January 20 – Unleashing Alaska’s Extraordinary Resource Potential: Calls for (among other things) a rollback of certain actions taken by the Biden administration regarding oil and gas development on the Coastal Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and the National Petroleum Reserve – Alaska, and a reinstatement of certain actions by the first Trump administration.
▸ Executive Order 14154 of January 20 – Unleashing American Energy: Directs a review of “all existing regulations, orders, guidance documents, policies, settlements, consent orders, and any other agency actions . . . to identify those agency actions that impose an undue burden on the identification, development, or use of domestic energy resources,” with agencies to develop and begin implementing plans to suspend, revise, or rescind the unduly burdensome actions within 30 days. This Order, together with Secretarial Order No. 3418 (see below), creates a framework for the Bureau of Land Management to eliminate unwarranted constraints on its leasing process. This Order also calls for an overhaul of the Council on Environmental Quality’s guidance on federal agencies’ implementation of the National Environmental Policy Act, including the proposed rescission of the CEQ’s existing regulations within 30 days. And in fact, an interim final rule to remove those regulations was published by CEQ on February 25 (90 FR 10610).
▸ Executive Order 14156 of January 20 – Declaring a National Energy Emergency: Directs agencies to “identify and exercise any lawful emergency authorities available to them . . . to facilitate the identification, leasing, siting, production, transportation, refining, and generation of domestic energy resources, including, but not limited to, on Federal lands.” (See also Secretarial Order No. 3417, below.) The President has extended the declared emergency for one year, by notice published on January 14, 2026 (91 FR 1667), Continuation of the National Emergency With Respect to Energy.
▸ Secretarial Order No. 3417 of February 3 – Addressing the National Energy Emergency: Directs the Interior Department’s bureaus and offices, within 15 days, to submit plans for using the available authorities “to facilitate the identification, permitting, leasing, development, production, transportation, refining, distribution, exporting, and generation of domestic energy resources and critical minerals including, but not limited to, on Federal lands and the Outer Continental Shelf;” as well as “to expedite the completion of all authorized and appropriate infrastructure, energy, environmental, and natural resources projects within their jurisdiction to perform or to advance . . . the supplying, refining, transporting, and exporting of energy.”
▸ Secretarial Order No. 3418 of February 3 – Unleashing American Energy: Directs the Assistant Secretaries, within 15 days, to submit plans for implementing Executive Order 14154, including “steps that, as appropriate, will be taken to suspend, revise, or rescind” certain documents – notably, the BLM regulations on “Fluid Minerals and Leasing Process” and “Conservation and Landscape Health;” the Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing 5-Year Plan for 2024-2029; and certain BLM Instruction Memoranda, “including but not limited to, ‘Implementation of Section 50265 in the Inflation Reduction Act for Expressions of Interest for Oil and Gas Lease Sales’ (November 21, 2021) and all other related IMs addressing changes made by the Fluid Mineral Leases and Leasing Process rule.” The plans are also to include “the steps to be taken that would accomplish, at a minimum, the following: actions that prioritize reducing barriers to the use of Federal lands for energy development, consistent with the principle of multiple use; actions to implement new and amended policies and procedures to increase the efficiency in [BLM’s] adjudication of applications for permits to drill; . . . actions to offer more parcels of the public land for oil and gas leasing, including through quarterly lease sales, or additional lease sales, as appropriate and consistent with existing law, including 30 U.S.C. 226(c); actions to review the 5-year program for offshore oil and gas leasing to assess the need for changes to meet the Nation’s energy goals . . . ; [and] actions to review and, as appropriate, revise all withdrawn public lands, consistent with existing law.”
▸ Executive Order 14213 of February 14 – Establishing the National Energy Dominance Council: Establishes the Council to advise the President on increasing energy production.
▸ Executive Order 14260 of April 8 – Protecting American Energy from State Overreach: Directs the Attorney General to identify State laws that improperly burden “the identification, development, siting, production, or use of domestic energy resources;” and to “expeditiously take all appropriate action to stop the enforcement of” those laws.
▸ Executive Order 14270 of April 9 – Zero-Based Regulatory Budgeting to Unleash American Energy: Directs certain agencies to insert conditional sunset dates in certain of their regulations. At the Interior Department, this requirement applies to regulations issued by the Bureau of Land Management under the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 and the Energy Policy Act of 2005; by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management under the Outer Continental Shelf Act of 1953 and the 2005 Energy Policy Act; by the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement under the 1953 OCS Act; and by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service under the Endangered Species Act of 1973 (among others). The Environmental Protection Agency and the United States Army Corps of Engineers are directed to identify those agencies’ regulatory authorities that should be subject to this Order as well.
▸ Interior Department Policy Announcement of April 23 – Alternative Arrangements for NEPA Compliance: Provides for expedited environmental review for certain projects in response to the President’s declaration of a national energy emergency. Eligible projects, under this announcement, are those “(a) that seek to identify, lease, site, produce, transport, refine, or generate energy resources . . . ; and (b) for which the project applicant(s) have submitted plans of operations, applications for permits to drill, or other applications.” (Note: This announcement would thus not appear to apply to reviews of leasing nominations.) For eligible projects that are not likely to have significant environmental impacts, an environmental assessment is to be prepared within approximately 14 days of receiving a complete application. For such projects that are likely to have significant environmental impacts, an environmental impact statement is to be prepared within approximately 28 days (including a brief public comment period) of publishing a notice of intent to do so. (The Department’s announcement also provides for an expedited consultation process under the Endangered Species Act; and alternative procedures for National Historic Preservation Act compliance.)
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Instruction Memorandum No. 2025-028 – Oil and Gas Leasing – Land Use Planning and Lease Parcel Reviews: This IM, issued on May 8, 2025, announces BLM policy changes “to increase the lands offered for onshore oil and gas lease sales, to decrease leasing timeframes, and to ensure that oil and gas lease sales are held in accordance with . . . applicable laws.” The IM specifically supersedes IM’s 2023-006, 2023-007, and 2023-010, issued under the Biden administration (and discussed in detail under the Biden Administration Policy Review link on this website).
- As to land use planning, the new IM declares, “It is the BLM’s policy that existing land use plan decisions remain in effect until an amendment or revision is complete or approved. Therefore, the BLM will not defer leasing pending the completion of an RMP amendment or revision.”
- As to lease parcel reviews, the IM reaffirms that those reviews “will be conducted and documented simultaneously with the NEPA compliance process for oil and gas lease sales” (emphasis added). The IM sets a goal “to complete parcel review and offer parcels in an oil and gas lease sale within a 6-month timeframe from the start of scoping until the lease sale” (which does not address the time that may elapse between the filing of a nomination and the start of the scoping period; nor does it generally apply to nominations of lands managed by other federal agencies). BLM is directed to “include all eligible parcels, including parcels deferred from previous sales, in its scoping notice for upcoming oil and gas lease sales.” Parcel evaluations continue to be based on the five factors introduced under the Biden administration, since those factors were enshrined into regulation and thus remain binding unless and until the regulations can be amended: proximity to existing oil and gas development; presence of important fish and wildlife habitats; presence of high-value cultural resources; presence of recreation and other important uses; and potential for oil and gas development – but, unlike under the Biden administration’s policy, low-preference parcels are to be included in lease sales even when high-preference parcels are available. BLM is to “move forward with offering all eligible parcels.”
This IM is to be effective immediately, and “will guide leasing procedures for all current and future parcels under review by the field offices as of the date of this IM.”
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One Big Beautiful Bill Act
The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, discussed elsewhere on this website, made a number of changes to the federal oil and gas leasing program that significantly impacted the functioning of that program. The “Big Beautiful Bill,” which was signed into law on July 4, 2025, as Public Law 119-21, includes provisions that reverse many of those changes. Among the new law’s provisions for onshore leasing (with comparable provisions for offshore):
• Expression-of-Interest Fee. The $5/acre fee, for filing an expression of interest to nominate lands for competitive leasing (30 U.S.C. 226(q)), is abolished.
• Royalty Rates. The royalty rate is rolled back from 16-2/3% to not less than 12.5% (30 U.S.C. 226(b)).
• Noncompetitive Leasing. The Inflation Reduction Act, in sec. 50262(e), had eliminated noncompetitive leasing (30 U.S.C. 226(c)). Sec. 50101(b)(2) of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act repeals that subsection of the Inflation Reduction Act, and states that “any provision of law amended or repealed by that subsection is restored or revived as if that subsection had not been enacted into law.”
• Lease Terms. Sec. 50262(e) of the Inflation Reduction Act also had made subtle – but potentially significant – changes to the longstanding statutory language as to lease terms (30 U.S.C. 226(e)). By the One Big Beautiful Bill Act’s repeal of that subsection, the Mineral Leasing Act’s former language is restored – i.e., a lease “shall continue so long after its primary term as oil or gas is produced in paying quantities;” and a lease where “actual drilling operations were commenced prior to the end of its primary term and are being diligently prosecuted at that time shall be extended for two years and so long thereafter as oil or gas is produced in paying quantities.”
• Royalties on All Extracted Methane. The Inflation Reduction Act’s requirement, for the assessment of royalties on all gas that is consumed or lost (with limited exceptions) from newly-issued leases (30 U.S.C. 1727), is repealed.
Besides its reversal of changes made by the Inflation Reduction Act, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act adds several new provisions to the Mineral Leasing Act:
• Definition of Lands “Eligible” and “Available” to Offer in Lease Sales. The Mineral Leasing Act, in 30 U.S.C. 226(b)(1)(A), provides, “Lease sales shall be held for each State where eligible lands are available at least quarterly and more frequently if the Secretary of the Interior determines such sales are necessary” (emphasis added). The terms “eligible” and “available” have been subject to varying interpretations by Interior and the courts. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act sets the definitions of these terms by statute: “For purposes of the previous sentence, the term ‘eligible lands’ means all lands that are subject to leasing under this Act and are not excluded from leasing by a statutory prohibition, and the term ‘available’, with respect to eligible lands, means those lands that have been designated as open for leasing under a land use plan developed under section 202 of the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 (43 U.S.C. 1712) and that have been nominated for leasing through the submission of an expression of interest, are subject to drainage in the absence of leasing, or are otherwise designated as available pursuant to regulations adopted by the Secretary.”
• Additional Lease Sale Requirements for Certain States. As to lease sales in the States of Wyoming, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, Montana, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Nevada, and Alaska, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act restates the general requirement for at least four yearly lease sales, and then further requires, for those specific States, that the Secretary “shall offer not less than 50 percent of available parcels nominated for oil and gas development under the applicable resource management plan;” and that a replacement sale is to be held during the same fiscal year if a sale “is canceled, delayed, or deferred, including for a lack of eligible parcels; or [if] . . . the percentage of acreage that does not receive a bid is equal to or greater than 25 percent of the acreage offered.”
• Lands to be Offered for Leasing. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act changes the designation of Sec. 17 of the Mineral Leasing Act (30 U.S.C. 226) from “Lease of Oil and Gas Lands” to “Leasing of Oil and Gas Parcels;” and it replaces existing subsection (a) (“All lands subject to disposition under this chapter which are known or believed to contain oil or gas deposits may be leased by the Secretary”) with provisions directing that (1) “Any parcel of land subject to disposition under this Act that is known or believed to contain oil or gas deposits shall be made available for leasing . . . not later than 18 months after the date of receipt by the Secretary of an expression of interest in leasing the applicable parcel of land available for disposition under this section, if the Secretary determines that the parcel of land is open to oil or gas leasing under the approved resource management plan . . . that is in effect on the date on which the expression of interest was submitted to the Secretary;” and (2) “A lease issued by the Secretary . . . shall be subject to the terms and conditions of the approved resource management plan; and may not require any stipulations or mitigation requirements not included in the approved resource management plan.” (Note: These provisions may not necessarily be controlling as to lands that are under the jurisdiction of another surface management agency, whose consent is required for the leasing of those lands.)
• Term of Application for Permit to Drill. A non-renewable four-year term is established for an approved application for permit to drill (30 U.S.C. 226(p)).
• Commingling of Production. The commingling of production is authorized, under certain conditions, from two or more sources “before production reaches the point of royalty measurement regardless of ownership, the royalty rates, and the number or percentage of acres for each source” (new 30 U.S.C. 226(q)). (Note: Guidance on implementation of the Act’s commingling provisions was issued by the Bureau of Land Management on August 11, in Instruction Memorandum 2025-034.)
For notable recent court opinions, decisons by the Interior Board of Land Appeals, federal regulations, and BLM lease sale information, click the following links:
Interior Board of Land Appeals