White House Task Force Commandeers the Council on Environmental Quality

by Tom Darin

In an administration so closely linked to the oil and gas industry, it's no surprise that the Interior Department's drill-at-all-cost energy policies pose serious environmental threats to millions of acres of public lands in Wyoming. After all, big oil helped put this administration in power, and it's no secret that this industry dominated closed-door meetings on - and even helped write - Vice-President Cheney's National Energy Policy.

It's quite another matter, however, when these prodrilling, anti-multiple-use mandates permeate the Executive Branch's Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ), whose sole responsibility is to safeguard our nation's environment.

In 1970, Congress passed landmark legislation entitled the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). NEPA's goals are "to declare a national policy which will encourage productive and enjoyable harmony between man and his environment; to promote efforts which will prevent or eliminate damage to the environment and biosphere and stimulate the health and welfare of man; to enrich the understanding of the ecological systems and natural resources important to the Nation; and to establish a Council on Environmental Quality." These words, 33 years later, are still awe-inspiring.

The charter of the CEQ, rooted within the Office of the President, is "to be conscious of and responsive to the scientific,

WOC was part of a broad coalition that challenged the RMEC's secret meetings and the administration's calculated misuse of the CEQ to champion increased energy

economic, social, aesthetic, and cultural needs and interests of the Nation; and to formulate and recommend national policies to promote the improvement of the quality of the environment."

With the stroke of a pen, the administration has virtually rewritten the CEQ's charter and purpose. First, President Bush signed an executive order creating an interagency task force to "accelerate the completion of energy related projects" and to "increase energy production." Revealing the administration's true colors, the task force, called the White House Task Force on Energy Project Streamlining, is chaired by the CEQ and, further, housed within the Department of Energy. Given its mission and purpose, charging the CEQ with "streamlining" already rampant and environmentally destructive oil and gas projects in the West, especially in Wyoming, is akin to taking medical supplies away from Peace Corps workers and replacing them with AK-47s.

The latest move by the Task Force is the creation of the Rocky Mountain Energy Council (RMEC). The group has one primary goal: to "reduce the conf lict, uncertainty, and time involved in making decisions" related to energy projects and further, to "streamline" the permitting system to make oil and gas drilling "more predictable." Of course, the RMEC is careful to state other goals that promise public involvement and conservation, but if the administration's actions over the past two years provide any clues, these statements merely pay lip service to the public's interest and our nation's environment. The RMEC is clearly the administration's latest effort to rubber-stamp approval of oil and gas projects in the Rockies by reducing public scrutiny and involvement and eliminating or severely eroding environmental protections.

The RMEC held its first meeting, behind closed doors, in early July. WOC was part of a broad coalition that challenged the secret nature of these meetings and the administration's calculated misuse of the CEQ to champion increased energy production on our public lands.

We succeeded in our demand that the RMEC's next meeting, in August, be open to the public and include personal invitations to interested stakeholders like WOC to attend and speak. You can be sure that we'll continue to insist on public participation in future meetings of the RMEC and press the CEQ to live up to its 33-year-old charter: promoting the improvement of our environment.