(Moab, UT) - It all started in Utah, when the U.S. Interior Department launched a probe of Bureau of Land Management (BLM) oil and gas leasing policies in response to a court challenge. In Utah and three other western states, a new analysis shows that the BLM is doing a pretty good job meeting the recommendations of that probe, known as the Stiles Report.

The study - called "Making the Grade (Almost)" - says the agency's new policies rank the needs of the public and wildlife as equal to those of the oil and gas industry.

Nada Culver, director of The Wilderness Society's BLM Action Center, which did the analysis, says greater public input has also made the leasing process less contentious.

"After a lease sale, leases are being issued with less delays. Protests are going from most of the leases in a sale being protested to less than 20 percent this year."

The report studied oil and gas leasing reforms prompted by a federal court ruling in 2008 that called the BLM's onshore oil and gas land-leasing system "fundamentally broken." Today, Culver says, Utah is one of the states where the agency is trying a new approach that has increased public participation in leasing decisions.

"The BLM in Utah has begun a Master Leasing Plan process, and in that process they are also reaching out and coordinating with, for instance, the National Park Service as to how oil and gas development in the Moab area could affect places like Arches and Canyonlands."

While the changes are mostly positive, she says, gaps remain in transparency of leasing and drilling operations, and agency support for one consistent, regional policy for selecting land for oil and gas development.