US to drill more for oil and gas

The Interior secretary Ken Salazar will be announcing shortly that in order to carry drilling on federal lands, his agency needs to ask oil and natural gas companies to clear all regulatory hurdles before they can go ahead with drilling in federal lands.

However, this is more likely to make it difficult for the US Bureau of Land Management to speed up the permission of oil and gas projects on federal land. The staff in BLM shall need to acquire approvals from supervisors and make more visits to those places where the energy companies are ready to gain access.

The US domestic production from federal onshore oil and gas wells makes up 11% of US natural gas supplies and 5% of the country’s oil. The Obama administration is already in the midst of a fight with the oil and gas industry over proposals to raise billions of dollars. This is as additional taxes from energy companies.

Mr. Salazars action has attracted criticism from Government Accountability Office for violation of federal law; as well as litigation from certain environmental groups. It was planned that oil and gas drilling will be carried out by allowing federal land managers to ignore widespread environment reviews that are required.

The GAO mentioned that the 2005 law fails to state the conditions under which the exclusions can be granted. Many business groups are apprehensive that this action will discourage domestic energy development, in addition to new rules and regulations to the process of oil and gas drilling

The Industrial Energy Consumers of America, which is a lobbying group representing manufacturers has written a letter to Mr. Salazar. In this they stated the 2005 law about reducing the drilling permit backlogs and boosting natural gas production. “At a time when we should be working to enhance our energy supplies here at home, we believe it would be a mistake to pursue policies that would make it more expensive or difficult to access critical natural-gas resources, “the group said. Republican lawmakers have also insisted to Mr. Salazar not to give up the practice of granting categorical exclusions, as better guidance was needed y the BLM staff.

“We are concerned that the [U.S.] Department of the Interior is prepared to use a sledgehammer where a scalpel would suffice, “said Rep. Doc Hastings of Washington, in a letter to Salazar a few months back. According to some congressional democrats and environmental groups, the BLM has misused its authority in a number of cases and the rules have to be more stringent.