US House Natural Resources Democrats seek BLM enforcement information

March 12, 2019
US House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Raul M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) and Energy and Minerals Subcommittee Chairman Alan Lowenthal asked acting US Interior Sec. David Bernhardt for information about the US Bureau of Land Management’s safety and environmental regulation enforcement efforts.

US House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Raul M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) and Energy and Minerals Subcommittee Chairman Alan Lowenthal asked acting US Interior Sec. David Bernhardt for information about the US Bureau of Land Management’s safety and environmental regulation enforcement efforts.

Their Mar. 11 letter came as the two federal lawmakers released a new Government Accountability Office report that found that the DOI agency has not completed internal control reviews at more than 80% of BLM’s field offices that manage oil and gas activities on public lands.

Grijalva said the report demonstrates that BLM’s focus on achieving “energy dominance” by selling leases and issuing permits as fast as possible, regardless of environmental or legal consequences, is diverting attention away from carrying out other critical duties, including conducting inspections and enforcing environmental and safety regulations.

He said its findings echo a 2005 GAO report that found that a dramatic increase in oil and gas operations on public lands between 1999 and 2004—largely during George W. Bush’s presidency—severely compromised BLM’s ability to meets its environmental protection responsibilities.

“Republican presidents manage our vast public lands as they would an oil field, not as sensitive habitats and historic resources,” Grijalva said. “Chairman Lowenthal and I are eager to review this data and will continue to hold the Trump administration accountable for prioritizing extraction over public safety and environmental health.”

Their letter requested each noncompliance notice BLM issued for safety, environmental, or drilling violations from February 2011 through March 2019. The data build on a 2012 report that then-ranking Natural Resources Committee member Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) and ranking Energy and Minerals Subcommittee member Rush D. Holt (D-NJ) requested a year earlier that detailed erratic and inconsistent federal enforcement of federal oil and gas safety rules between 1998 and 2011, Grijalva and Lowenthal said.

They released their letter and the new GAO report a day before the subcommittee is scheduled to hold a hearing to examine policies and priorities at BLM, the US Forest Service, and the Power Marketing Administrations.

Contact Nick Snow at [email protected].