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The Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report criticizing the Interior Department's continued use of an outdated data management system to track oil and gas permit approvals and other activities, warning it compromises Interior's oversight responsibilities. Both the Bureau of Land Management and Interior's Office of Natural Resource Revenue use these systems to carry out their responsibilities overseeing production of crude oil and natural gas.
The findings in the GAO report reflect years of complaints from government watchdog organizations, the oil and gas industry, and conservation nonprofits about the difficulty of using federal databases to pull accurate data related to leasing and production, enforcement and rental payments, and royalty collection. The Center for Western Priorities' Deputy Director Aaron Weiss says, "Anyone who has used LR2000 will quickly tell you that it is a dumpster fire of a database."
The GAO's report adds to increased public scrutiny of the federal oil and gas program as President Biden has called for a program-wide assessment of the climate impacts of drilling for federal minerals and a review of decades-old royalty rates. The administration's interim report on the federal oil program is under review at the White House and expected to be made public this summer. Weiss reiterated the timeliness of the GAO's findings, saying, "As the Biden administration moves to modernize a century-old oil and gas leasing system, the American people need reliable and accurate data on how their public lands are used, and moving off antiquated systems like LR2000 is the only way to do that."
Allies rally in support of Tracy Stone-Manning to lead BLM
Supporters of Tracy Stone-Manning's nomination to lead the Bureau of Land Management remain steadfast despite attacks that center on her testimony against activists who spiked trees more than 30 years ago when she was a 23-year-old graduate student. Whitney Tawney, the executive director of Montana Conservation Voters said, "This is, unfortunately, our junior Senator Steve Daines being a sore winner and putting politics before public lands, before Montanans and before our way of life." Gwen Lachelt, a former La Plata County Commissioner in Colorado reinforced Tracy's qualifications in an opinion piece in the Durango Herald, stating, "Tracy is clearly the kind of collaborative leader we need right now. She understands that we do not have to choose between maintaining our rural economies and combating climate change through the protection of our lands. Both goals can be accomplished through proper stewardship and working collaboratively with all stakeholders."
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We can’t have healthy minds when our surroundings become threatening and hostile. Exposure to noise from drilling aggravates health conditions related to stress and diminishes quality of life. Light pollution from oil and gas operations at night adds even more stress, impacting circadian rhythms and altering hormone releases."
