Public lands and energy news from the Center for Western Priorities
Look West: Public lands and energy news from the Center for Western Priorities
** How the feds can hold oil and gas accountable
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Wednesday, September 20, 2023
California oil and gas infrastructure. Photo by John Ciccarelli, BLM ([link removed]) .
For decades, the oil and gas industry has benefitted from a leasing system for federal lands and waters that allows operators to repeatedly violate environmental and labor standards with minimal consequences, take advantage of regulatory loopholes to dodge payments, and avoid liability for their activities.
According to a new report from the Center for American Progress ([link removed]) , the Biden administration has the necessary tools to hold the industry accountable. The report notes ([link removed]) , “The bad-actor practices that oil and gas companies have demonstrated on U.S. public lands and waters can be solved through strong regulations that hold the industry accountable.” In particular, the report highlights the Bureau of Land Management's proposed oil and gas reform rule ([link removed]) as a way to ensure companies that profit from public resources act as responsible stewards of those resources through increased minimum bonds, raising royalty rates, and
eliminating anonymous expressions of interest in the leasing process.
As of 2022, the oil and gas industry held more than 34,000 leases on public lands, covering more than 23.7 million acres ([link removed]) . The report finds ([link removed]) that more than 50 percent of the top oil and gas companies have exhibited one or more bad-actor behaviors, such as abandoning wells, shedding liabilities, dodging royalty payments, or committing environmental or labor violations. Many of the biggest companies have multiple subsidiaries that operate under the company’s original name, making it difficult to determine who is responsible for various oil and gas resources and the associated liabilities.
The CAP report calls on the Interior Department ([link removed]) “to make companies pay their fair share, clean up the environment, protect individuals and communities at risk from oil and gas extraction, and limit who is allowed to extract resources from shared U.S. lands.”
New blog: What's in the Interagency Working Group report on mining?
In a new blog post ([link removed]) , Center for Western Priorities Policy Director Rachael Hamby digs into the details of a report released by the Biden administration’s Interagency Working Group (IWG) on Mining Laws, Regulations and Permitting. The report ([link removed]) recommends a suite of important reforms to the laws, regulations, and policies that govern mineral exploration and development on national public lands. While the IWG’s recommendations are promising, they won’t make a difference unless they are implemented. Regulatory and policy changes can only address the symptoms of the underlying problem—our continued reliance on the General Mining Law of 1872, an outdated and inadequate legal foundation that has remained unchanged for over 150 years.
** Quick hits
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No federal oil and gas lease sales in Montana in 2023
Billings Gazette ([link removed].)
Interior watchdog slams National Park Service for inflating maintenance costs
E&E News ([link removed])
Wind River Reservation to receive funding for sagebrush growth and preservation
Wyoming Today ([link removed])
Biden administration restores power of states, Tribes to review projects to protect waterways
Associated Press ([link removed])
How the federal government can hold the oil and gas industry accountable
Center for American Progress ([link removed])
What dust from the Great Salt Lake does to our bodies
Salt Lake Tribune ([link removed])
Deprived of Colorado River water, an Estonian company's plans to drill in Utah may have dried up
Grist ([link removed])
Woman paralyzed from the chest down summits Colorado's highest peak
Summit Daily ([link removed])
** Quote of the day
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” What we know is air pollution and those fine particles you breathe in is bad for all of us. It can have whole-body effects, not just breathing.”
—Denitza Blagev, a top pulmonary medicine expert at Intermountain Health, Salt Lake Tribune ([link removed])
** Picture This
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@usinterior ([link removed])
Save the date! On Saturday, September 23—in honor of National Public Lands Day—entrance fees will be waived at Interior-managed public lands that require fees.
We encourage everyone to get outside and take advantage of the health benefits of spending time in these natural spaces that belong to all of us.
Photo at @greatsanddunesnps ([link removed]) by Patrick Myers / NPS
#NPLD ([link removed]) #nationalpubliclandsday ([link removed]) #publiclands ([link removed])
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