Our Transparency Blitz is going strong this month as we sustain our push back against the U.S. Bureau of Land Management’s attacks on the Freedom of Information Act and our democracy.
Our goal? Shine an ever-brighter spotlight on the agency’s operations and activities.
As we unveiled earlier, this month we intend to file a request for records under the Freedom of Information Act every day to the Bureau of Land Management.
What records are we seeking? Mainly, records related to the agency’s management of fossil fuels, including publicly owned coal and oil and gas reserves in the American West.
However, more broadly, we’re after any information that helps us better understand whether and to what extent the agency is colluding with the coal and oil and gas industry to push more mining and fracking, and to what extent the agency is working to exclude Americans from the management of their lands and minerals. Whether it’s in relation to on-the-ground plans to mine or frack, or whether it’s in relation to internal conversations in Washington, D.C., we’re seeking those records so we can make them available to the public.
We started on October 5, 2017 by filing five requests with the Bureau of Land Management. Since then, we’ve kept up the pace, calling on the agency to release to the American public myriad records related to the management of public lands and resources. Most recently, we’ve filed the following request for records:
- An October 12 request to the BLM Montana State Office for records related to a proposal to expand the Rosebud coal mine.
- An October 13 request to the BLM Montana State Office for records related to a March 2018 proposal to lease public lands for fracking.
- An October 14 request to the BLM Colorado State Office for records related to a March 2018 proposal to lease public lands for fracking.
- An October 15 request to the BLM Wyoming State Office for records related to a March 2018 proposal to lease public lands for fracking.
- An October 16 request to the BLM Utah State Office for records related to the designation of the Uinta Basin as nonattainment for ozone.
Stay tuned for more. And as always, stay tuned for the responses to these Freedom of Information Act requests. All data obtained by WildEarth Guardians’ Climate and Energy Program is posted on our Freedom of Information Act repository page.
There, the public has access to all the records we obtain. In most cases, this is the sole online source of this information.
For example, we just received records related to the Colorado BLM State Office’s sale of public lands for fracking in September 2017.
While the Bureau of Land Management may view this push for transparency as a problem, we view it as critical for countering government secrecy and promoting democracy. The last thing we, as Americans, should tolerate is a government that believes inquiry is problematic. If anything, it’s patriotic and that’s exactly why we’re going to maintain course and keep our Transparency Blitz in full force.
