Tighter rules for oil and gas drilling on federal lands will go a long way toward protecting the environment, yet they won’t unreasonably restrict necessary energy exploration.
The rules, announced this week by U.S. Secretary of Interior Ken Salazar, will ensure a more comprehensive review process at the front end, which should lessen protests and court challenges after leases have been approved.
The regulation pendulum had swung too far in the other direction during the Bush administration, and these reforms are a sensible counter to that.
The poster child for that regulatory philosophy was the roster of 77 drilling leases near sensitive Western parklands pushed through in the waning days of the Bush administration. These leases, near Arches and Canyonlands national parks and Dinosaur National Monument, circumvented internal reviews and ultimately were entangled in a federal lawsuit.
Shortly after taking the helm at Interior, Salazar promised to scrutinize the review process and make changes.
This week, he delivered.
The U.S. Bureau of Land Management will include requirements for a master leasing plan, which will look comprehensively at natural resources in an area where there is expected to be significant new oil and gas development.
The public will be more significantly involved before land is leased in particular areas, and there will be a tightening of rules for “categorical exclusions” from detailed environmental reviews.
These have been difficult days for the Obama administration where oil and gas exploration are concerned. The gushing oil well befouling the Gulf of Mexico has exposed serious flaws in the offshore drilling regulatory process, as Salazar admitted in testimony this week on Capitol Hill.
Salazar needs to approach regulatory problems in offshore drilling with the same diligence he has employed in reforming drilling regulation on dry land.
