As US Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and the Bureau of Land Management drew fire for proposed changes in onshore oil and gas rules for public lands BLM administers, another Interior agency quietly concluded the public comment period for policy changes it has proposed.
The National Park Service (NPS) proposed revisions on Nov. 25, 2009, to regulations governing 693 nonfederal oil and gas operations within boundaries of 13 NPS units that have been in effect for more than 30 years.
"Nonfederal oil and gas rights are the result of a conveyance of an interest from a grantor other than the United States and may be held by individuals, companies, nonprofit organizations, or state and local government," the DOI agency said in the proposed rulemaking notice.
Such rights are a form of real property and are protected under the US Constitution's Fifth Amendment, it said. NPS has the authority to regulate those rights under laws passed by Congress allowing the agency to promulgate regulations necessary to manage the parks system.
Current rules
Operators must document that they are exercising a bona fide nonfederal oil and gas property right. They must identify specific steps they'll take to protect park resources and values. And they must submit a bond to assure funds will be available to reclaim a site if the operator defaults on his obligations, NPS said.
The agency proposed requiring 364 operations that are currently exempt to comply with the regulations. These include 190 wells just inside park boundaries but that are maintained without crossing park land, and 255 operations that were covered by a valid state permit when the original NPS rules took effect.
NPS also proposed possibly changing incentives for directional drilling from outside park boundaries. It said while it realizes such activity can have indirect impacts such as sight, sound, odors, or spills, effects are usually much less than from surface activity inside the parks.
Performance bonds
The agency also is considering updating performance bonds (currently capped at $200,000/operator), and replacing the limit with a variable amount of financial assurance "equal to the reasonable estimated cost of reclamation and liability today." It also proposed updating operating standards and noncompliance assessments, and changing vehicle registrations to access fees.
In its comments, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) lauded NPS's proposals, but added they should be extended beyond oil and gas to coal, sand, gravel, and other extraction operations. There presently are no rules governing nonfederal mineral operations within national parks other than petroleum, it said.
"The same legal authority empowering [NPS] to regulate oil and gas also empowers [it] to regulate mineral extraction," observed PEER executive director Jeff Ruch. "As long as NPS is updating one set of rules, it should also take care of the other."
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