What’s The Future For Public Land Oil, Gas Development?

Northwest Public Radio
By Courtney Flatt
February 5, 2014

As more crude oil moves through the Northwest, officials in Washington, D.C., are talking about drilling more on public lands.

A House subcommittee met Wednesday to investigate Bureau of Land Management leasing decisions. The Natural Resources Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources heard from the oil and gas industry and conservation advocates.

“Since taking office, the Obama administration has made oil and gas development so burdensome and uncertain that companies continue to avoid federal land for energy development,” said committee chairman Rep. Doug Lamborn, R-Colo.

Democrats on the committee fired back.

“Why is the industry so insistent on drilling more and getting the use of more of the people’s land to produce? It’s not for lower gas prices. It’s not even for energy independence. It’s so they can export it,” said Rep. Rush Holt, D-N.J.

Natural Resource Committee Democrats, headed up by Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., have called for a separate hearing on crude oil exports.

As EarthFix has reported, crude oil shipments through the Northwest could increase, “if legislators pushing to end restrictions on crude exports are successful.”

During the hearing, industry groups said there was too much red tape in the BLM leasing process and that the bureau too often duplicated state and Environmental Protection Agency efforts.

“Where the federal government has the most control, that is on federal public lands, we have seen them put in place obstacles, new layers of analysis, bureaucracy to the process,” said Kathleen Sgamma, with industry group Western Energy Aliance.

Sgamma said if the government encouraged development on federal lands, the boom seen in North Dakota’s Bakken oil fields could be seen across the West.

Also testifying at the hearing was Dennis Willis, who worked for the BLM for 35 years. He did not speak on behalf of the bureau.

Willis said there are differences between oil development on private and public lands, most notably that the government must think long-term, whereas that’s not always the case with private business.

“The U.S. need not hurry in leasing its oil and gas. Fifty to 100 years from now, the resource will still be there, still be useful, likely worth more and the extraction technology better. No harm is done to the public estate by leaving some of these resources in the bank for later,” he said.