USRep. Rob Bishop (R-Utah) was ready to give Ken Salazar the benefit of the doubt. Then, during the US Interior secretary’s first few weeks in office, he canceled several leases from a December onshore sale in Utah, delayed preparation of a new 5-year Outer Continental Shelf leasing plan, and withdrew an oil shale proposal solicitation.
The lease cancellations particularly disturbed Bishop, who is a senior member of the House Natural Resources Committee, because they deprived Utah of $300 million in federal royalties. “He didn’t just take away leases. He affected people’s lives; he took away jobs,” Bishop told me on Mar. 20.
Bishop said Salazar’s actions were part of a troubling trend. “There was a lack of engagement early on, and many people thought that the Obama administration would take a moderate approach. With the stimulus package, the proposed budget, and Secretary Salazar’s actions, it’s obvious they plan to take the government further left,” he said.
Bishop, who chairs the House’s Western Caucus, said he and other members are trying to develop alternatives to the administration’s proposals. He found the new oil and gas taxes and fees “deeply troubling” and suggested that using royalties from increased production on federal lands for an alternative technologies development trust fund would be “an orderly, logical process.”
Democrats, too
But he also said that any proposed compromises will need to be bipartisan and to have Democrats’ support. Western Caucus Republicans are working with oil-state Democrats such as Gene Green of Texas and Dan Boren of Oklahoma to educate federal lawmakers and their staffs about modern oil and gas production, he explained.
“It will take a lot of outreach and education, more than simply standing up and screaming, to get more people to understand what’s going on,” Bishop said.
The problem isn’t limited to members elected to their first terms in 2006 and 2008, he continued. “A lot of old members from urban districts don’t have a clue about what’s going on. We want to take people from the urban East and show them the relatively minor impact an oil and gas field has in comparison to a solar or wind farm,” he said.
Still talking
Bishop said he’s encouraged that the bipartisan spirit that brought many House Democrats and Republicans together last summer to work on Reps. John E. Peterson (R-Pa.) and Neil Abercrombie’s (D-Ha.) OCS proposal has extended into 2009. “People on the floor are still talking about doing something in a bipartisan way. The Obama administration is the new player, and it isn’t interested yet,” he told me.
“The energy issue hasn’t gone away. We still have abundant resources that are locked away. A unique situation forced prices down toward the end of last year, but that won’t last. We in the Western Caucus want to be ready with viable alternatives when they are needed,” Bishop said.
