Well, it might be that they were not alone, as reports have emerged that the government’s undercover agents have infiltrated similar such events, in order to “keep tabs on the demonstration.”

According to a story from July by The Intercept, several undercover agents mixed with ‘Keep it in the ground’ movement protestors, at a protest organized in May in Lakewood Colorado over a lease sale on public lands, organized by Bureau of Land Management. Several other environmental groups have allegedly been monitored by police as well.

The Intercept has also shared an e-mail according to which police have relied upon intelligence gathered by the oil and gas company Anadarko.

Relying on the information revealed in The Intercept article, the conservation group Center for Biological Diversity on Thursday filed nine Freedom of Information Act requests seeking the release of public records relating to surveillance of peaceful protests of federal fossil fuel auctions, including the one held in New Orleans in March.

The group is seeking information on all oil and gas lease sales in the past year, both offshore and onshore, aiming to get a grasp of the extent of the government’s surveillance program aimed at environmental groups.

The requests seek all internal federal correspondence related to the protests as well as communication with other agencies, including local, state, and federal law enforcement, industry, and private consultants.

“There’s a large and growing movement of peaceful protesters calling on their government to make a moral choice to save our climate and end new fossil fuel leasing on public lands,” said Taylor McKinnon with the Center.

Over the past decade, the combustion of federal fossil fuels has resulted in nearly a quarter of all U.S. energy-related emissions, the group says. An 2015 report by EcoShift Consulting, commissioned by the Center for Biological Diversity and Friends of the Earth, found that remaining federal oil, gas, coal, oil shale and tar sands that have not been leased to industry contain up to 450 billion tons of potential greenhouse gas pollution.

McKinnon said: “The public has a right to know whether the government has launched a surveillance program targeting climate activists who are courageously speaking up for what’s right.”

He added: “Neither undercover surveillance nor moving fossil fuel auctions online will hide the dangerous disconnect between the Obama administration’s climate rhetoric and its fossil fuel leasing policies,” McKinnon said. “Until those policies align with U.S. climate goals, they’ll continue to face growing public protest — and rightfully so.”

While McKinnon promises more protests, info intercepted by The Intercept shows that the protestors soon might not have a venue to protest at.

Namely, an e-mail allegedly sent by a BLM officer says this: “Our agency is looking at ways to avoid conducting these lease sales in public as to avoid the safety issues we are experiencing during these events. I am hopeful that this will happen soon so that we will not put our employees and the public in a situation that is volatile”

Online offshore leases?

Currently, Department of the Interior through BOEM conducts sealed-bid lease sales for offshore oil and natural gas leasing, in which bids are opened and read aloud in the Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana.

However, this might change, as Louisiana’s Rep. Garret Graves in July introduced a bill named the “Innovation in Offshore Leasing Act,” aiming to introduce internet-based technologies as a “ cost-effective improvement that will bring greater efficiency and transparency to the Department of the Interior’s (DOI) offshore leasing process.”

“Dealing with the government is like going back in time, and workflows the private sector retired decades ago are still alive and well. In the real world, work gets done online – that’s why I introduced this bill,” Rep. Graves said, adding that the internet-based oil and gas leasing will open investment opportunities and competition for additional businesses, improve the transparency and efficiency of the process.

While waiting for the first U.S. online offshore oil and gas lease sale to happen, BOEM is set to make another first when it comes to offshore lease sales.

Namely, as early as August 24, the agency will hold the Western Gulf of Mexico Lease Sale 248, in New Orleans, Louisiana, which will be the first federal offshore oil and gas auction broadcast live on the internet.

Through this approach, BOEM says it aims to promote greater government efficiency and transparency, eliminating the need for the public to physically attend the bid reading at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome.