Point of View: Burns: Domestic production cornerstone of US energy policy

Feb. 24, 2003
The new deputy majority whip of the US Senate, Conrad Burns (R-Mont.), is a familiar advocate for US oil and gas producers, particularly independents seeking relaxed restrictions to hydrocarbon-prospective public lands.

The new deputy majority whip of the US Senate, Conrad Burns (R-Mont.), is a familiar advocate for US oil and gas producers, particularly independents seeking relaxed restrictions to hydrocarbon-prospective public lands.

Burns was a cosponsor of a proposal put forth by Republican leaders last year that largely mirrored a White House energy plan. The bill, authored by former Sen. Frank Murkowski (R-Alas.), encouraged streamlined environmental permitting for federal land leasing and more access to resource-rich lands such as the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

The bill also dramatically expanded domestic oil and gas production tax incentives, an item missing from the White House's more fiscally conservative proposal.

Burns has criticized US dependency upon foreign oil supplies, calling on Congress to ban imports from Iraq and to increase domestic oil production and research in fuel cell technology. He has cosponsored key Senate legislation to arm airline pilots to protect against future terrorist attacks.

Revisiting energy bill

This year, Burns said he plans to use his new leadership role to encourage lawmakers to revisit a comprehensive energy bill. But he still opposes tighter controls on auto fuel economy standards and other "mandates," because he says they are not cost-efficient.

"I remain committed to using our domestic resources wisely for additional energy production and to making sure any energy bill I take part in focuses on domestic production as a cornerstone of national energy security," Burns said in an OGJ interview last month.

"I will not support any energy bill that is economically damaging by raising consumer prices or making unreasonable mandates on producers."

But before lawmakers turn their attention to an energy bill, there are budget issues to dispense with. And this year, Congress has not one but two budgets to address. The Senate last week passed a sweeping budget bill for fiscal year 2003 that began last Oct. 1. That legislation, which incorporates 11 of the 13 annual spending bills that fund the federal government, must be reconciled with a House version. Soon after, Congress will start the yearly budget process all over again, when it considers the White House's FY 2004 requests.

Burns plays a crucial role in the budget process as chairman of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior, which sets spending levels for government-funded oil and gas research in the Department of Energy.

The panel also determines funding for the upkeep of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, the nation's crude oil stockpile. And the subcommittee oversees funding for the Department of the Interior, including the Minerals Management Service and the Bureau of Land Management.

Spending levels for the 2003 fiscal year are not expected to be dramatically different than the previous year. However, budgetmakers mulling the 2004 federal budget are facing new pressures from the White House to lower domestic spending to keep budget deficits in check.

When he was a ranking member of the subcommittee, Burns consistently supported federal oil and gas research designed to help independents boost domestic production. As chairman, he remains committed to policies that encourage domestic production, although he won't commit to specific funding levels yet.

Burns says, however, that federal research is still needed, especially given the fact that most state budgets are under even tighter fiscal constraints.

"That's all a subject for debate still," he said. "But we're seeing that many of these (oil-producing) states are hurting for revenue."

One issue that Burns plans to vigorously pursue is public land access. Burns is a member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, and its new chairman, Pete Domenici (R-NM), plans hearings on what regulatory and legislative obstacles operators face when they want to develop public lands.

"Public access continues to be a huge problem; we can't lift out our own resources," Burns said.

Foreign policy

Along with encouraging domestic production, Burns wants decision-makers in the US government to encourage diverse energy supplies as an important foreign policy goal.

"The key to our security is diversity," Burns said.

To that end, the Montana senator has embraced the Bush administration's renewed enthusiasm for encouraging energy alliances between Russia and the US.

"In the 21st century, the United States and Russia can help to diversify the world energy supply to diminish cartel dominance over the price of oil," Burns said in remarks before an energy summit in Moscow last month. "No one country holds a copyright on a commodity like oil. We realize this when we acknowledge that outside of the Middle East, there lies a greater potential for further development: in Russia, in the Caspian, in West Africa, and, yes, in the United States."

Burns said the US has relied for "far too long" on Saudi Arabia and Iraq, two Middle East suppliers which he said are governed by "feudal, antidemocratic dictators" who influence the world oil market.

But of all the autocratic governments within the region, Iraq's Saddam Hussein is by far the most dangerous, the senator indicated.

By abusing the United Nations' oil-for-aid program, Saddam Hussein is "using food for terror, not food for peace," Burns told OGJ. "The man has not been honest with the world or his own people."

Burns said he does not want to eliminate the humanitarian program, which is designed to supply the Iraqi people with crucial civilian goods without giving Hussein access to oil revenue he could use for military purposes.

The program also historically has been an important source of oil for the US: According to the US Energy Information Administration, Iraq supplied 6.7% of total US petroleum imports in 2001.

But Burns said there are too many loopholes in the current system. The UN has in effect allowed Hussein to build bombs and chemicals that could be "unleashed upon his enemies at the hour of his choosing. That's not oil for food, that's oil for terror," he said.