Interior, EPA each outline efforts to reduce regulatory burdens

Oct. 26, 2017
The US Department of the Interior and the Environmental Protection Agency separately reported energy regulatory burdens discovered within their operations and steps under way to relieve them.

The US Department of the Interior and the Environmental Protection Agency separately reported energy regulatory burdens discovered within their operations and steps under way to relieve them. Other federal departments and agencies also issued reports on Oct. 25 in response to US President Donald Trump’s Executive Order 13783 directing departments and agencies across the government on Mar. 28 to review and possibly change rules that impede the nation’s energy development.

“Developing our energy resources to grow our economy and protecting the environment are not mutually exclusive. However, while conducting the review outlined in the executive order, we found that several costly and burdensome regulations from the past threaten that balance by hampering the production or transmission of our domestic energy,” said Interior Sec. Ryan Zinke, who also signed a secretarial order establishing an executive committee on expedited permitting.

“We can be both pro-jobs and pro-environment. At EPA, that means we are working to curb unnecessary and duplicative regulatory burdens that do not serve the American people—while continuing to partner with states, tribes, and stakeholders to protect our air, land, and water,” EPA Administrator E. Scott Pruitt said.

Specific problems identified and actions undertaken in DOI’s review included:

• 94% of the US Outer Continental Shelf being closed to oil and gas activity under the 2017-22 management program developed during the Obama administration. Secretarial Order 3350 began the process of developing a projected 2019-24 program giving full consideration to federal leasing on the Atlantic, Pacific, and Alaska OCS in addition to the Gulf of Mexico. It also revived applications to conduct the first geophysical tests off the US Mid-Atlantic to identify potential resources since the 1980s, and authorized appointing a policy counselor to the secretary to coordinate DOI’s energy portfolio spanning nine of its 10 bureaus.

• A 2015 US Bureau of Land Management rule covering hydraulic fracturing on public and Indian lands which imposed additional compliance costs on oil and gas operators already following state and tribal regulations. Secretarial Order 3349 put BLM’s rule under review, and the agency published a rulemaking to rescind the requirement on July 25.

• BLM’s Venting and Flaring Rule, which the agency issued under its authority to prevent the waste of federal oil, gas, and mineral resources, but which critics said impinged on EPA’s responsibility to control and limit toxic air emissions. Secretarial Order 3349 put the regulation under review, and BLM proposed temporarily suspending some of its requirements on Oct. 5 while it actively reviews the underlying rule for possible revision.

• Unnecessarily long National Environmental Policy Act reviews for infrastructure projects such as pipelines and electricity transmission lines. DOI’s review identified master leasing plans and greater sage grouse resource management plans as possible revocation candidates. Deputy Interior Sec. David Bernhart also issued an August memorandum setting a deadline of 1 year and limiting environmental impact statements to 150 pages, or 300 pages for unusually complex projects.

• Systemic delays in federal oil, gas, and mineral leasing, which reduce certainty for producers and keep states from receiving their shares of federal revenue and royalties. In addition to the secretarial order forming an executive committee on expedited permitting that Zinke signed on Oct. 25, DOI has filled nearly half of the 92 vacancies it found in that area in January, and BLM has reduced the time it takes to process drilling permit applications to an average 46 days.

• Abuses under the Endangered Species Act when considering onshore and offshore projects. Secretarial Order 3353, which Zinke signed on June 8, established an internal review team to evaluate both federal and state greater sage grouse conservation plans while considering local economic growth and job creation. ESA regulations which may be outdated, unnecessary, ineffective, and inconsistent with secretarial orders also are being reviewed.

EPA’s report discussed nine actions on energy regulations covered by Trump’s executive order, and included four initiatives EPA is undertaking to implement it including reforms of New Source Review and National Ambient Air Quality Standards, evaluations of effects EPA regulations have on employment, and reestablishment of the Smart Sectors Program to engage with businesses on how to reduce unnecessary regulatory burdens while protecting human health and the environment.

Contact Nick Snow at [email protected].