The State Director may call for expressions of leasing interest as described in § 3921.30 after areas available for leasing have been identified in a land use plan completed under part 1600 of this chapter.

Before the BLM will offer a tract for competitive lease sale under subpart 3924, the BLM must prepare a NEPA analysis of the proposed lease area under 40 CFR parts 1500 through 1508 either separately or in conjunction with a land use planning action.

The State Director may implement the provisions of §§ 3921.40 through 3921.60 after review of any responses received as a result of a call for expression of leasing interest. The BLM notice calling for expressions of leasing interest will:

(a) Be published in the Federal Register and in at least 1 newspaper of general circulation in each affected state for 2 consecutive weeks;

(b) Allow no less than 30 calendar days to submit expressions of interest;

(c) Request specific information including the name and address of the respondent and the legal land description of the area of interest;

(d) State that all information submitted under this subpart must be available for public inspection; and

(e) Include a statement indicating that data which is considered proprietary must not be submitted as part of an expression of leasing interest.

After the BLM receives responses to the call for expression of leasing interest, the BLM will notify the appropriate state governor's office, local governments, and interested Indian tribes and allow them an opportunity to provide comments regarding the responses and other issues related to oil shale leasing. The BLM will only consider those comments it receives within 60 calendar days after the notification requesting comments.

After analyzing expressions of leasing interest received under § 3921.30 and complying with the procedures at § 3921.40 of this chapter, the State Director may determine a geographic area for receiving applications to lease. The BLM may also include additional geographic areas available for lease in addition to lands identified in expressions of interest to lease.

If, as a result of the analysis of the expression of leasing interest, the State Director determines that there is interest in having a competitive sale, the State Director may publish a notice in the Federal Register requesting applications to lease. The notice will:

(a) Describe the geographic area the BLM determined is available for application under § 3921.50;

(b) Allow no less than 90 calendar days for interested parties to submit applications to the proper BLM office; and

(c) Provide that applications submitted to the BLM must meet the requirements at subpart 3922.