Comment on FR Doc # 2026-12734

The new oil and gas rules do the American people a disservice and should not be implemented. These changes reject common-sense approaches to regulating oil and gas that were put in place in 2024 to protect people, public land and public resources. Weakening bonding requirements to this level, by the BLM's own admission, could significantly and unnecessarily delay cleanup and puts the tax payers at risk of ultimately being on the hook to pay for it. Bonding must be at a high enough level to create incentives to conduct full reclamation. This is not a partisan statement; people on both the left and right strongly believe that oil and gas companies should pay for their own cleanup and are responsible for restoring drilling sites. This new proposal fails that test. These new oil and gas rules also restrict the publics right to participate in a meaningful way in leasing decisions. Cutting local input from the process all but guarantees that critical wildlife habitat, sacred cultural sites, and treasured outdoor recreation areas will be subject to harmful leasing and drilling. This proposal ignores widespread opposition to limiting public participation. By removing leasing criteria as proposed, the BLM is setting itself up to manage massive conflicts between oil and gas and wildlife habitat, cultural sites, and outdoor recreation. Analyzing preference criteria prior to leasing is a critical part of a balanced approach to multiple uses of our public land. Maintaining leasing criteria would help ensure important habitat, historical and sacred sights, and other important uses are protected prior to the leasing phase. Again, this rule fails to do anything but ensure chaotic, destructive leasing practices. The BLM should throw this entire package out and start over. These new rules are a disaster for our public lands and our rights to self-govern.