by Agence France-Presse
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar.Mike Disharoon via FlickrWASHINGTON—The United States is moving away from the “drill anywhere, whatever the cost” energy policy of the previous administration, officials said Wednesday as they announced reforms in the way oil and gas leases are attributed.
“We don’t believe we have to be drilling everywhere and anywhere,” Interior Secretary Ken Salazar told a news conference where he and other officials announced changes to the way the U.S. government manages onshore oil and gas exploration leases.
“We believe we have to have a balanced, thoughtful approach that allows for the development of oil and gas resources but at the same time protects the treasured landscapes of America,” Salazar said.
The new approach was in line with President Barack Obama’s commitment to develop U.S. gas and oil stocks while also growing the country’s green energy capacity, Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Land and Minerals Management Wilma Lewis said.
It also marked a break from the way the George W. Bush administration did oil and gas business, said Salazar. “The previous administration’s approach to oil and gas leasing … by and large was that leasing should happen almost anywhere, at whatever cost,” he said.
He faulted the Bush administration for putting up for auction “highly controversial areas” in the western United States, including municipal watersheds, wildlife habitats, or lands close to national parks. “There seemed to be little rhyme or reason to which areas were leased. Western landscapes were being carved up and fragmented,” said Salazar, who is from Colorado.
Nearly half of the leases offered under the Bush administration were contested by environmental and other groups in 2008, compared with “a little over 1 percent in 1998,” the secretary said.
Court battles over leases are costing millions of dollars in litigation, tying up resources, and showing that the current lease system is flawed, he said.
Under the proposed reforms to the onshore oil and gas leasing program, more environmental analyses will be conducted before leases are auctioned and the public will be engaged “earlier and more frequently in the process,” said Salazar.
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