Republicans on the US House Natural Resources Committee introduced two bills aimed at facilitating federal onshore oil and gas leasing and permitting on June 13.
HR 6087 would give the US Secretary of the Interior authority to recover the cost of processing administrative protests of lease sales, drilling permit applications, and pipeline right-of-way applications. Rep. Liz Cheney (Wyo.) was its sponsor.
HR 6088 would amend the Mineral Leasing Act and allow lessees to file drilling notifications instead of drilling permit applications for activities that would not have a weighty environmental impact. Rep. John R. Curtis (Utah) was its sponsor.
Curtis said his bill would help streamline burdensome federal processes, create economic development opportunities in rural communities, and keep the country on a path toward energy independence.
The measures were among four discussion drafts that the Energy and Minerals Subcommittee examined several days earlier (OGJ Online, June 8, 2018). Democrats at that hearing warned that if the proposals became law, they would discourage public participation in deliberations under the 1970 National Environmental Policy Act.
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