Monday’s announcement of implementing guidance for onshore natural gas and oil policy changes by Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar came after months of delay caused by wrangling within the department.  Despite the extensive planning of these policies even before the Deepwater Horizon accident, the Secretary took full advantage of the announcement to show how he’s being tough on industry in the wake of the Gulf of Mexico incident.

The DOI policy changes announced on Monday will:

  • Implement additional layers of NEPA environmental analysis that will likely add between three to six years onto the leasing process
  • Create a new Master Leasing Plan that will have the effect of rewriting significant portions of recently completed Resource Management Plans (RMP)
  • Create new “Interdisciplinary Consistency Review Teams” consisting of already overstretched BLM personnel as well as other agencies that will scrutinize each parcel nominated for lease
  • Require speculative site-specific environmental analysis at the leasing stage, before it is even known whether there is recoverable natural gas or oil, and how many wells and other infrastructure would be necessary to develop any resource
  • Open up more opportunities for legal challenge at each step of the process
  • Rewrite the criteria for categorical exclusions congressionally mandated under Section 390 of the Energy Policy Act of 2005, and implement extraordinary circumstances review
  • Take BLM staff away from on-the-ground protection, monitoring, and enforcement to potentially never-ending, redundant analysis

We think a much better way to achieve the safe, environmentally responsible energy development that the public demands is for on-the-ground protection, not three more years of paperwork and analysis behind a desk.  This policy implemented by Salazar is not about environmental protection – it’s about deciding where else not to develop.  These reforms do nothing to get at the safety and environmental problems seen in the Gulf.

We share the same goal as the administration to protect the environment and safely produce the energy America needs.  But if that is the true goal, then let’s do just that.  The administration is using an unrelated and isolated event as justification for policies that have been on the wish-list of environmental groups since Secretary Salazar took over at Interior.   IPAMS is working with Senators Bob Bennett (R-UT) and John Barrasso (R-WY) on legislation that they plan to introduce to block the implementation of these policies.

I invite you to participate in BLM’s conference call today, Wednesday, May 19th at 10:00 a.m. MDT to learn more about the changes.

Prior to the call, please go to www.blm.gov and download the PowerPoint slides, questions and answers, and factsheet .  The conference number for today’s call is 1-888-677-0863, and the participant passcode is ENERGY REFORM.  Also, don’t forget to click here and send a thank you to Senators Bennett and Barrasso.