Salazar announces more red tape for Rockies producers, ‘review’ of onshore permitting and leasing program
posted on: Jan 06, 2010
Salazar announces more red tape for Rockies producers, ‘review’ of onshore permitting and leasing program
While Interior Secretary Salazar continues to assure us that he and the rest of the Obama Administration are “not anti-oil and gas”, it seems that every week brings with it an announcement from his office of new regulations and bureaucratic red tape that will make natural gas and oil development in the Rockies even more difficult and costly. Several weeks ago, IPAMS gained national attention for our reports on the mismanagement of the federal onshore program, the $100 million of unissued leases in the West, and the arbitrary way in which valid leases in Utah were rescinded by Secretary Salazar.
In response to our reports, Secretary Salazar again assured us that he was “not anti-oil and gas” and that “it is important for the oil and gas industry to have certainty” when developing on public lands. While these are encouraging words, we sure wish that DOI would take actions to support them. Today, DOI announced changes that will create additional layers of red tape, allow government bureaucrats to trump the expertise of geologists and engineers, and ignore the Energy Policy Act of 2005, which passed Congress with the support of both Barack Obama and Ken Salazar. The Secretary also announced that DOI would conduct a “review” of the onshore permitting and leasing program. IPAMS is concerned that what DOI is calling “additional review” is simply another way to further slow development in the West.
We certainly hope that IPAMS will have a seat at the table during this review. Our members have a long history of developing natural gas and oil on federal lands in an environmentally responsible manner. Western producers provide 27% of the nation’s natural clean-burning natural gas while disturbing only 0.07% of public lands. In doing so, we provide billions of dollars in federal and state revenue, and help the West maintain a low unemployment rate compared to the rest of the country.
Clamping down on natural gas and oil development is contrary to the efficient development of American energy resources on federal lands. These actions will also hamper our economic recovery since they target an industry that is responsible for 260,000 jobs in the Intermountain West and billions of dollars in revenue to local, state, and federal governments.
We are sorry to see DOI moving to a bureaucratic command-and-control system in which government bureaucrats—rather than scientists and engineers with expertise in natural gas and oil development– dictate where energy development should occur. The market-based system has worked well for decades, allowing government land managers to specify what lands are appropriate for leasing and leaving it to the geologists and engineers to do the exploration and nominate projects based on geologic and market conditions.
DOI’s announcement also means that federal land managers will lose the use of Congressionally-mandated categorical exclusions, an important tool that has been instrumental in encouraging American energy development and protecting the environment. DOI cannot pick and choose which laws to follow. Congress mandated the use of CXs where the environmental impact is minimal or where environmental analysis has already been completed; it did not provide Interior with discretion to cite ‘extraordinary circumstances’ that justify redundant review. The law clearly mandates that CXs be used when specific criteria are met.
Will you please take a moment to send a friendly note to officials at the Department of Interior asking them give us a seat at the table during their review and allow us to develop the clean, abundant and American energy our nation desperately needs to address our energy, environmental, and economic challenges?
As always, thank you for your support of IPAMS and please do not hesitate to contact me or any of the IPAMS staff if you need additional information.
Click here to send your letter to DOI.
