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September 30, 2003
Title III of the discussion draft released by the
House-Senate Energy Conference Committee on September 29th would
make oil and gas development the dominant use of America's western
public lands. The myriad other uses and values of these lands -
water quality and quantity, livestock grazing, the private property
rights of ranchers and farmers on "split estate" lands,
wildlife and wildlife habitat, recreational uses, wildland preservation,
and cultural and archeological values - would take a back seat to
oil and gas production on lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management
and on national forests. The bill represents a radical departure
from Congress' direction for our public lands over the past 50 years.
It threatens the landscapes of today's West with rapid industrialization,
resulting in the pollution of its clear air as well as streams and
rivers, degradation of wildlife habitats and dwindling populations
of big game and other species, and the destruction of the quality
of life of its residents.
For over five decades, Congress has mandated the
multiple use principle for management of our public lands - not
the dominant use principle. Rather than allow these lands to be
managed for a single, dominant use, Congress has directed that activities
like energy production be balanced against other land uses and values
and that the damaging impacts of development activities to be minimized.
Under this proposal, energy production would trump all other uses
- and western landscapes and communities would pay the price.
The September 29 draft includes provisions that
seek to:
- Prohibit drilling fluids from being considered
drinking water pollutants - even when they contain diesel fuels
and other potentially harmful chemicals (Sec. 327).
- Exempt oil and gas drilling sites from water
pollution controls (Sec. 328).
- Establish a new "Office of Federal Energy
Project Coordination" in the White House to expedite the
permitting and completion of energy projects on public lands (Sec.
341).
- Require the Secretary of the Interior to review
federal oil and gas permitting processes and take action to ensure
"timely action" on applications for drilling permits
(Secs. 342, 343) - at a time when more than thousands of drilling
permits have already been approved so far this year.
- Require the U.S. Geological Survey to identify
"restrictions" and "impediments" to oil and
gas development on public lands - including scientifically based
measures to protect fish and wildlife, cultural and historic values,
and other publicly-owned resources from harm during development
(Sec. 345).
- Prohibit federal land managers from "taking
any action" before determining if there would be "a
significant adverse effect" on energy development (Sec. 346)
- an attempt to discourage adoption of any resource protections
that might affect development.
- Establish a special "pilot project"
to streamline approvals of drilling permits (Sec. 348) - a project
that could result in the abandonment of protections for wildlife
and other public values in seven specific BLM field offices across
the West.
- Allow applicants for drilling permits up to
two years to complete their applications but mandate BLM approval
of drilling permits within days (Sec. 349). This provision also
seeks to require approval of an application that is "complete,"
even if the project is fundamentally flawed because its impacts
cannot be mitigated - as when the site is near a sensitive area
like a stream or on a steep slope. This language was in neither
the House or Senate passed energy bill.
- Allow corridors for oil and gas pipelines, as
well as electricity transmission and distribution facilities,
to be established by Secretarial order circumventing the land
use planning process (Sec. 351). This provision too was in neither
the House or Senate passed energy bill.
- Put the Energy Department in charge of permitting
utility corridor rights-of-way on public lands (Sec. 352).
- Mandate approval of a 500 KV power line through
California's Cleveland National Forest precluding meaningful environmental
review and public participation (Sec. 354)
In addition, the bill would ease access for energy
companies to tribal lands by undermining environmental review and
public participation requirements (Indian energy title).
And, the discussion draft would provide massive
subsidies to the oil and gas industry - already the nation's wealthiest
industrial sector - to underwrite their degradation of our lands.
Its subsidies include:
- Creation of a $500 million loan program
to assist and encourage companies to develop oil and gas reserves
(Sec. 335). This sum is $400 million more than the House bill
provided and, unlike the House bill, the discussion draft lacks
any guarantees that loans would actually be repaid.
- Establishment of a program for reclaiming some
of the orphaned, abandoned and idled wells on federal lands that
includes provisions for reimbursing energy companies for cleanup
costs (Sec. 319). Instead of forcing the industry to internalize
these costs, taxpayers could end up footing the bill.
- Allowing the Secretary of the Interior to reimburse
oil and gas companies when they pay for environmental reviews
of their projects (Sec. 326), rather than making adequate federal
funds available.
- Granting royalty exemptions for marginal wells
that produce less than 15 barrels of oil per day or 90 million
Btu of gas as well as offshore wells deeper than 400 meters (Sec.
313). The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that these
exemptions would cost $136 million over the next ten years.
Drilling the West won't make America energy
independent. Making oil and gas production the dominant use
of our western public lands will destroy western landscapes, western
communities and the environmental values of those lands. All Americans
will suffer - now and in the future - if this legislation, written
by and for the energy companies, becomes law.
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