GAO: INADEQUATE STUDIES TRIM GOVERNMENT REVENUE

Inadequate environmental studies are costing the U.S. government revenues from the leasing of land administered by the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service, the General Accounting Office has charged. A GAO report said most plans and related environmental impact statements for BLM and Forest Service land with high crude oil and natural gas potential do not contain enough information on elements essential to assess the effects of drilling and development.

Aug. 13, 1990

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A GAO report said most plans and related environmental impact statements for BLM and Forest Service land with high crude oil and natural gas potential do not contain enough information on elements essential to assess the effects of drilling and development.

GAO said, "Both agencies also have issued leases and approved permits without including appropriate mitigating measures, even approving some drilling permits without first completing the environmental studies they identified as necessary.

"Such actions have led to delayed or suspended oil and gas activity.

"As a result, federal revenues have been delayed or lost."

And those revenues, GAO said, far exceed any reasonable estimated cost of improving the process.

WHAT WAS COVERED

The GAO inquiry examined 82 land use plans and related environmental impact statements covering BLM and Forest Service acreage believed to have high oil and gas potential.

The inquiry found that 75 either did not identify or touched only briefly one or more of the five elements required to assess the environmental effects of oil and gas activities. Only six of the BLM plans and one Forest Service plan met GAO's criteria for all five of the elements.

GAO said three of the four BLM areas and three of the four Forest Service forests it checked also approved some drilling permits without including all the conditions of approval required by land use plans, environmental studies, and/or resource specialists.

It estimated that 10% of all permits approved in those areas lacked all the necessary conditions of approval.

KEY ELEMENTS

GAO said the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and BLM and Forest Service regulations require five key elements that are essential to assess the environmental impacts of oil and gas leasing and development decisions. They are oil and gas potential, a reasonably foreseeable development scenario, indirect impacts, cumulative impacts, and lease stipulations.

GAO called on BLM and the Forest Service to improve their management controls to ensure NEPA requirements are complied with and attach appropriate stipulations to leases and permits.

And it said the agencies should determine which resource areas or forests will yield the most revenues and give priority to developing adequate information for those areas so oil and gas development can proceed expeditiously with the least possible damage to the environment.

Rep. Nick Rahall (D-W.Va.) and Sen. Dale Bumpers (D-Ark.) requested the GAO study.