Interior officials say work continues on streamlining oil and gas permits

By OGJ editors
WASHINGTON, DC, June 25 -- US Department of the Interior officials Tuesday told House lawmakers that federal land managers recognize further improvements are needed to reduce oil and gas permitting delays.

Testifying before the House Subcommittee on Energy and Minerals Resources, Rebecca Watson, assistant secretary of the Interior for Land and Mineral Management, said the permit process can take as short as a month or as long as a year depending on the lease involved and where the permit was filed.

In some cases, delays are inevitable because of lawsuits and overlapping environmental statutes. Nevertheless there are still ways to streamline the system without jeopardizing stakeholder concerns, whether they come from an environmental group, Indian tribe, or landowner, Watson said.

Watson said the White House soon plans to unveil new energy permitting procedures that should reduce delays caused by redundancies by federal land managers but did not offer a specific timeframe or further details. She also said the department's Bureau of Land Management will hold an agency wide conference so there is no room for doubt among regional land planners regarding ongoing streamlining efforts. "BLM is focusing on better coordination and more can and should be done," Watson told the subcommittee.

Last April, BLM unveiled a new management plan designed to cut out redundancy and red tape on several fronts. Producers who submit multiple permit applications with similar characteristics, for example, now can have environmental reviews processed simultaneously (OGJ, Apr. 28, 2003, p 22.). Since that guidance was issued however, some local BLM officials maintained that the management plan was voluntary, not mandatory.

Responding to lawmakers' concerns, Watson said, "We are making it clear that the instructional memorandum are not optional, they are guidance that is binding."