Deadline to comment on BLM’s proposed revisions of Biden era fluid Leasing reforms.

Oil and Gas Leasing proposed rule, 91 FR 38084, Docket BLM-2025-0037, comments due August 24, 2026, with the companion Royalty/lost gas rule (91 FR 37906) on the same deadline.

BLM published two related proposed rules in the Federal Register on June 24, 2026, both with public comments open until August 24, 2026:

1. Oil and Gas Leasing (91 FR 38084; RIN 1004-AF05)
https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2026/06/24/2026-12734/oil-and-gas-leasing
This is the main one — it would revise the leasing process across 43 CFR parts 3000–3180, citing the OBBB and the “Unleashing American Energy” and DOGE deregulatory executive orders. It’s proposed changes to expedite and encourage oil and gas development; industry is calling it a repeal of Biden-era measures, while environmental groups say it will stifle critical public participation and reduce incentives for companies to clean up drilling sites. This is largely an unwinding of the 2024 Fluid Mineral Leases and Leasing Process Rule (the one that raised royalty rates, rentals, minimum bids, and bonding under the IRA).

Submit your comments using one of these methods:

• Mail, personal, or messenger delivery: U.S. Department of the Interior, Director (630), Bureau of Land Management, 1849 C St. NW, Room 5646, Washington, DC 20240, Attention: 1004-AF05.
• Federal eRulemaking Portal: https://www.regulations.gov. In the Search-box, enter “BLM-2025-0037” and click the “Search” button. Follow the instructions at this website.

2. Royalty for Oil and Gas Lost From Onshore Federal and Indian Leases (91 FR 37906; RIN 1004-AF33)
https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2026/06/24/2026-12738/royalty-for-oil-and-gas-lost-from-onshore-federal-and-indian-leases
This companion rule covers venting, flaring, and lost gas — it would reframe the rule’s purpose around reducing regulatory burdens for operators and streamlining administration of oil and gas losses, with new venting/flaring measurement point requirements.

Submit your comments using one of the following methods:

• Mail, Personal, or Messenger Delivery: U.S. Department of the Interior, Director (630), Bureau of Land Management, 1849 C St. NW, Room 5646, Washington, DC 20240, Attention: RIN #1004-AF33.
• Federal eRulemaking Portal: https://www.regulations.gov. In the Search box, enter the docket number “BLM-2025-0235” and click the “Search” button. Follow the instructions at this website. As required by 5 U.S.C. 553(b)(4), the Portal also contains a plain language summary of the proposed rule.

Go to the federal register notice for commenting instructions. We assume the deadline is  before midnight eastern time,

ENVIRONMENTAL GROUP ALERTS – pre Fab letters:

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1. The Wilderness Society — “Tell Interior you oppose rolling back the Oil and Gas Rule!”
https://act.wilderness.org/a/ogrule-2026-alert
Their action page frames the rollback as a handout to fossil fuel interests, slashing safeguards and the fees oil companies pay to drill. The act.wilderness.org platform is EveryAction

2. WORC (Western Organization of Resource Councils) — https://worc.org/blm-oil-and-gas-rule-revision-could-devastate-parts-of-the-rural-west/
Their page says they’ve made it quick and easy to send a comment and urges people to tell BLM to leave the 2024 rule alone. WORC may actually be a good framing fit for a South Dakota audience — Dakota Resource Council and Dakota Rural Action are WORC member groups, and their messaging is pitched at rural Western communities and ranchers: bonding rollbacks leaving taxpayers with cleanup costs, ending notification of split-estate landowners when federal minerals under their property are leased, and cutting the public objection window from 90 days to 10.

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Prairie Hills Audubon Society has been in litigation for several years, with other environmental groups, represented by Western Environmental Law Center, to intervene on behalf of the Biden Administration in support of Biden’s revisions.  Those revisions are being rewritten here. PHAS will sign on to the comment letter written by WELC and others.