Behind the Smokescreen: Implementing the National Energy Policy

by Tom Darin

While many of us are closely watching the energy bill debate (see related story on page 10), the Bush Administration is moving full-steam ahead in unleashing its May 2001 National Energy Policy (NEP). Target number one: oil and gas beneath public lands in the Rocky Mountain West.

Wyoming's special places and natural treasures have never been subjected to levels of oil and gas development like those proposed in the NEP. For those who think that everything is "on hold" until the House, Senate and the President agree (if ever) on a national energy bill, think again: the NEP is being implemented now - and all by executive fiat.

In March, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) hosted an "Energy Outreach Meeting" in Denver. On the agenda: increased oil and gas industry access to public lands, "streamlin[ing] the NEPA process," "expediting" drilling permits, "streamlining" cultural survey clearances - you get the picture. If you haven't noticed, many of these themes are exactly the same as those in pending energy bills.

Despite the fact that Congress has yet to enact federal energy legislation, the administration has already started implementing it on BLM-administered public lands throughout the West:

• President Bush signed Executive Order 13212 requiring agencies such as the Forest Service and the BLM to "expedite their review of permits or take other actions necessary to accelerate the completion of [energy-related projects]."
  
  
• The administration is working with industry to identify its key priority areas for federal oil and gas drilling, so that the BLM can focus its resources appropriately. A map that the BLM developed with industry literally circles these key areas, including the Powder River Basin.
  
  
• In August, the Interior Department ordered all BLM state directors to implement their National Energy Tasks, including expanding energy supplies and identifying ways to expedite drilling permit approval.
  
  
• In October, the BLM created an Energy Office to implement the proposed NEP.
  
  
• In December, the BLM followed up with another memorandum of instruction requiring the agency to complete a "Statement of Adverse Energy Impact" on every action it takes that may impede the goals of the NEP.
  
  
• In January 2002, the BLM completed a review of its Utah oil and gas programs, condemning the state office for allowing threatened species and consideration of wilderness proposals to get in the way of fast-tracking oil and gas projects. BLM state offices are now instructed that, "when an oil and gas lease parcel or when an APD [drilling permit request] comes in the door, this work is their No. 1 priority."

Lest there be any confusion about whether the Wyoming BLM has gotten the energy task force's message, in January, the agency awarded its Buffalo Field Office a "2001 Award for Excellence." The Buffalo office won its first-ever Wyoming BLM excellence award because it produced more drilling permits (almost all coalbed methane) than all other BLM offices in the country combined (excluding New Mexico). The Buffalo Field Office was praised for working diligently and creatively with industry in accomplishing this feat.

In our 35-year history, WOC has never seen an oil and gas development frenzy of this magnitude. The targets are virtually everywhere in the state: sprawling CBM developments in the Powder River Basin, five proposed and ongoing CBM projects near Rawlins, three new proposed CBM projects in the Thunder Basin National Grasslands, a new CBM proposal in the Red Desert and projected large-scale conventional oil and gas drilling projects in the Upper Green River Basin. We are scrambling to address this new onslaught of activity.

One thing remains certain: no matter what happens to the energy bills now being debated in Congress, the National Energy Policy is already being implemented in Wyoming and throughout the West. WOC is battling its potentially devastating assault on our wildlife and wildlands on numerous fronts, including addressing the legality of the BLM's implementation of the policy in light of environmental-protection laws as well as its mandate to responsibly manage public lands for a variety of multiple uses.