Editor:

The controversial Bureau of Land Management decision to offer for lease acreage in the Platte Valley on Dec. 4 for oil and gas exploration and development clearly points the extremely flawed lease process that BLM practices.

Time after time BLM has told the public that once the leases are sold, the leaseholder has a property right that "entitles" them to develop the lease.

Once again, Bruce Collins, Rawlins BLM spokesman, commenting on the Platte Valley lease offering, says that buying a lease gives the holder the right to explore the mineral estate and develop it if they believe it would be commercially feasible.

To allay our concerns over the Platte Valley lease sale, Collins goes on to say, "But, there's a whole big environmental process you've got to go through before development begins."

A point in fact that Mr. Collins didn't disclose is that BLM employees were forced to base all of their management decisions developed on the Atlantic Rim EIS on the premise that the leaseholders have a right to develop their leases. Obviously, selling a lease is a huge limiting factor in how a chunk of public land is managed.

Why bestow a right to develop until that environmental process has been done? Why not address impacts to the environment, impacts to the Platte Valley community of residents, landowners and social structure, impacts to the wildlife habitat, etc., before the lease is offered?

BLM would argue that they have done that with their Resource Management Plans. But I would argue that the plans are not specific enough to thoroughly explore the impacts to the owners, you and I, the owners of this public land.

While the public is given a time to protest until Tuesday, Nov. 13, Stephen Hall of the BLM office in charge of lease sales, said protests rarely result in removing parcels from sales, but sometimes parcels don't sell. Then he goes on to say tracts are offered for lease by request. Odds are they will sell.

From previous BLM practices, I conclude BLM policy is: If a mineral company wants the lease sold on a parcel of land so they can develop it, they merely need to ask. For protests rarely stop the lease offering. Then with that sale, BLM has generously given the leaseholder the "right" to develop this parcel of land and will base all their management decisions on this right. 

It is time that BLM changes this flawed lease process.

BARBARA PARSONS, Rawlins