Publicly Accessible Bureau of Land Management Websites for Information Regarding Federal Coal Program Leasing
United States Department of the Interior
BUREAU OF LAND MANAGEMENT
Washington, DC 20240
http://www.blm.gov
March 7, 2018
In Reply Refer To:
3425 and 3432 (320) P
Permanent Instruction Memorandum No. 2018-005
To: All Washington Office and Field Officials
From: Assistant Director, Energy, Minerals and Realty Management
Subject: Publicly Accessible Bureau of Land Management Websites for Information Regarding Federal Coal Program Leasing
Program Area: Coal Management.
Purpose: This Instruction Memorandum (IM) directs the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) offices to post and update specified Federal coal program leasing information on BLM websites, including information about Federal coal leases and lease modifications and their applications. The Washington Office (WO) Communications Directorate staff will provide website formatting and software guidance.
This IM replaces internally available IM No. 2017-035, Publicly Accessible Bureau of Land Management Websites for Information Regarding Federal Coal Program Leasing, Exploration Licensing, and Royalty Rate Reductions, published January 19, 2017.
Policy/Action: The BLM State offices (SO) and the WO are directed to maintain their publicly accessible webpages as outlined below. To provide the public consistency across SO webpages, table templates are provided as attachments to this IM. The attachment also includes templates for the WO webpage tables.
Each SO will develop and maintain tables on its SO coal data webpage containing an up-to-date list of information on each coal lease application (LBA) and coal lease modification application (LMA). Each SO webpage will also include a table that, at a minimum, lists all LBA and LMA actions completed in the previous five fiscal years (including current fiscal year actions) and all pending applications, as of the date of each update. Please be aware that information made available to the public must not contain confidential business information or information, which, if released, might harm the Applicant’s commercial interests.
The SO webpages should include:
- A summary of each individual LBA and LMA. Table 1 in the attachment is provided as a template. The summary of LBA or LMA webpages should remain posted for each application in process or completed (issued, withdrawn, or rejected) and should be included in Table 2 (see below) for the previous five fiscal years (including current fiscal year actions) and be revised as of the date of each update.
- A list of competitive lease sales and lease modification offers for the previous five full fiscal years (including current fiscal year actions) and all applications in process, as of the date of each update. Table 2 in the attachment is provided as a template.
At a minimum, the SOs will update the tables on or before the first business day of each quarter reflecting any change to the information contained therein.
In addition to the above, the SOs will provide the necessary summary information to the Washington Office Division of Solid Minerals (WO-320) Coal Program Lead(s) in order for it to maintain the WO National Coal Leasing website the following two tables (templates for which are provided in Attachment Table 3 and 4 respectively):
- Total Federal Coal Leases in Effect, Total Acres under Lease, and Successful and Unsuccessful Lease Sales by Fiscal Year, and
- Total Federal Coal Lease Modifications, Successful (Issued) and Unsuccessful Lease Modification (LMA) Offers by Fiscal Year.
WO-320 will ensure that the WO National Coal Leasing website provides links to the SO Coal Program websites to assist in making the SO sites easily accessible to the public. The national information will be revised once a year after the Public Lands Statistics (PLS) have been published.
Timeframe: Effective June 6, 2018. Updates will be completed by the first business day of each quarter.
Budget Impact: Minimal.
Background: In response to the Government Accountability Office (GAO) Report to Congressional Requesters, COAL LEASING: BLM Could Enhance Appraisal Process, More Explicitly Consider Coal Exports, and Provide More Public Information (GAO-14-140), the BLM committed to providing certain information on coal leasing to the public via its publically accessible website. This IM seeks to improve transparency in the BLM’s administration of the Federal coal program.
Manual/Handbook Sections Affected: None.
Coordination: State, district and field office coal specialists, Washington Office Solid Minerals Division, and Washington Office Communications Directorate staff coordinated the development of the publicly accessible websites and PLS reports for coal leases, LBA, and LMA information.
Contact: If you have any questions concerning the content of this Instruction Memorandum, please contact me at 202-208-4201, or your staff may contact Al Elser, Acting Division Chief for Solid Minerals (WO-320) at 202-912-7114 or aelser@blm.gov; or John A. Lewis, 202-912-7117, or j35lewis@blm.gov.
Signed by:
Timothy R. Spisak
Acting Assistant Director
Energy, Minerals and Realty Management
Authenticated by:
Catherine Emmett
WO-870, IT Policy and Planning
Attachment
1 - Guidance for Table Formatting and Coal Program Leasing Information (6 pp)