Amy Mall, Senior Policy Analyst, Washington, D.C.

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has released a draft rule that would govern hydraulic fracturing ("fracking") of federally managed oil and gas resources. There are many reasons why it is essential that the BLM issue strong, protective new rules for fracking. Among them is the fact that this rule, once finalized, will apply not only to federal public lands (like national forests and lands managed by the BLM), but will also apply to private lands where federally-managed oil and gas resources lie beneath non-federal surface property – a legal situation termed “split estate.”

If you own the surface of your land, but do not own the rights to the oil and gas beneath your land, you are in a split estate situation (split estate arose historically because of the various homesteading acts, which encouraged development of the West). In this situation, the oil and gas rights take precedence over the surface owner's rights, meaning that drilling and fracking can occur right in someone's backyard, or on their ranch, without the landowner’s consent. So the BLM rule will apply to fracking in residential and agricultural areas, as well as on public wildlands. In fact, a BLM Montana State Office publication entitled “Do you really ...

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