| WASHINGTON
- September 24 - The oil and gas provisions of the House-Senate Energy Conference Committee draft released on September 23 by Senator Domenici and Rep. Tauzin establish oil and gas development as the dominant use of the federal public lands, which are owned by all Americans.
All other values - water quality, the property rights of ranchers and farmers on split estate lands, wildlife and wildlife habitat protection, the preservation of wild lands, and the protection of cultural, historical and recreational values - would take a back seat to oil and gas development on lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management and the national forests.
This dominant-use philosophy is at odds with the multiple-use philosophy of public land management that has governed our public lands for more than 50 years. It is manifested in various provisions of the draft conference bill, which, taken together, represent a radical break with the balanced use and protection policies that Congress has attempted to achieve for decades in passing legislation related to the management and protection of the lands owned by all Americans.
Provisions of the bill would:
Prohibit drilling fluids from being considered pollutants of drinking water under the Safe Drinking Water Act (Sec. 28);
Allow applicants for drilling permits on federal lands to take up to two years to comply with application requirements, while providing the Bureau of Land Management only a few days to approve drilling permit applications (Sec. 49);
Put the Energy Department in charge of permitting utility corridor rights-of-way on public lands (Sec. 52);
Establish an "Office of Federal Project Coordination" within the White House to expedite the permitting and completion of energy projects on federal lands (Sec. 41);
Require the United States Geological Survey to identify various "restrictions and impediments" to the development of federal oil and gas deposits (Sec. 45). These "restrictions and impediments" include policies and regulations designed to protect fish and wildlife, wild lands, and cultural and historical values on the public lands;
Put the Department of Energy in charge of implementing Executive Order 13211, which requires federal land management agencies to determine - before "taking any action" - whether such actions would have "a significant adverse effect" on energy development (Sec. 46);
Establish a "pilot program" for expediting the approval of energy projects in the Rocky Mountain region (Secs. 47, 48);
Authorize the Secretary of the Interior to waive royalties and rental fees for oil and gas drilling in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska (Sec. 18).
These and other provisions of conference report will not secure America's energy future. They will instead secure the profits of America's wealthiest industry sector - the oil and gas industry - and should be opposed by all Americans who value the environmental values of our nation's public lands.
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