This week Senator Jon Tester (R-MT)  introduced the Leasing Market Efficiency Act to update antiquated Department of the Interior policies that govern oil and gas leasing on federal lands. In response, TCS President Steve Ellis issued the following statement:

“Thank you to Senator Tester for taking an important common sense step forward in remedying our broken oil and gas leasing system. For too long, oil and gas companies and other speculators have exploited a loophole in the law to gobble up thousands of acres of federal land without bidding for them. They simply wait out the sale and pick the land up at a steep discount after a lease sale yields no bids. While these day-after giveaways may pad the bottom line of industry, they deprive state and federal coffers of valuable revenue and tie up our public land from other uses.”