It was not long after US Department of the Interior Sec. Ken Salazar announced plans on Apr. 3 to develop a federal onshore oil and gas drilling permit system—one that potentially could reduce the application review period to as few as 60 days—that an essential question emerged: Did this all start with a pilot program in selected US Bureau of Land Management field offices authorized under Section 365 of the 2005 Energy Policy Act?
The law's provision designated Carlsbad, NM, and six other BLM field offices as pilot program sites. Employees with permit processing expertise were to form teams there to handle proposed energy projects, planning, and environmental analysis. It also established a special fund from federal revenues to pay for processing onshore federal land use authorizations from fiscal 2006 to 2015.
Congressional Republicans quickly pointed out that the Obama administration tried to cut off funding for that program in its four annual budget requests for DOI. So did Kathleen M. Sgamma, vice-president of government and public affairs at the Western Energy Alliance in Denver.
"While that, along with just about every other budget item, has failed to go through, the pilot office and permit streamlining programs are all but dead in fact," she told OGJ in an Apr. 4 e-mail.
"This Interior Department has put no emphasis on improving permitting through the pilot offices, and some of the worst backlogs and permitting times are at the pilot offices, although Carlsbad remains a model due to good local management," Sgamma said.
Broader approach
A BLM spokeswoman confirmed on Apr. 4 that EPACT Section 365 did create a pilot permit processing program in certain BLM field offices, which used rental income to pay for it. She said it did not address electronic systems for processing drilling permit applications or tracking lease sales, while the initiatives Salazar announced on Apr. 3 did.
"We don't have any concerns with the pilot projects—which the BLM has taken action to implement," the BLM spokeswoman said in an Apr. 4 e-mail. "In fact, what we're doing today is building on the success in Carlsbad and elsewhere."
Where Salazar and the Obama administration take issue with EPACT, she continued, is Section 365's Subsection (i) which prevents the secretary from increasing drilling permit processing fees while the authorized pilot programs are in operation. "In short, we believe that companies, not the taxpayers, should help foot the bill," she said. However it's accomplished, everyone apparently supports this reform effort now. "It's amazing how high gasoline prices and a looming election can concentrate minds," Sgamma said. "We definitely feel vindicated."
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