WASHINGTON (June 19, 2008) — The Wilderness Society commended the sponsors of two bills introduced in the House and a similar bill in the Senate last week for calling attention to the extensive surplus of federal leases that oil and gas companies have been holding for speculative purposes rather than taking steps to produce the resource.
"Though the oil and gas industry, the Bush Administration, and their allies in Congress want to open more federal onshore and offshore lands to leasing and development, these bills recognize that there is no need to turn over even more of our public lands to the industry, since the industry cannot keep pace with drilling the tens of millions of acres of federal lands they have already acquired," said David Alberswerth, The Wilderness Society's senior policy advisor.
The bills -- H.R. 6251, introduced by House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Nick Rahall, H.R. 6256, introduced by Reps. Ed Markey, Rahm Emmanuel, Maurice Hinchey and others, and a similar bill (S. 3133) proposed by Sens. Dodd, Durbin, and Menendez in the Senate -- would penalize companies that have acquired federal oil and gas leases for speculative purposes, but have not moved to extract the oil and gas resources from them.
"While the industry and their political allies are pushing to open more federal lands to leasing, they are sitting on more than 30 million acres of onshore federal leases that they have not used," said Alberswerth. "There is obviously no shortage of opportunities for the oil and gas industry to drill on the public lands. Industry has leased the rights to drill on 44 million acres of public land but has failed to develop 70% of those lands. In other words, the Bush Administration has already given the oil and gas industry more access to our public lands than they know what to do with. Their problem is excess, not access!"
"Moreover, last year the Bush Administration issued a record number of 7,124 federal onshore drilling permits, but the industry used only 5,343 of them. Turning more of our public lands over to the control of the oil and gas industry will not bring down the price of gasoline," Alberswerth said.
"Congress should not allow the Bush Administration in its waning months in office to turn over more of the public's oil and gas resources to the industry for speculation, and these bills are a step in the right direction," Alberswerth added. "But Congress needs to go further to ensure that leasing, when it does take place, occurs only in appropriate areas, and that development is done in a manner that protects the environment. The Bush Administration has shown a callous disregard of its responsibilities to do so."
"Finally, it's important to point out that the fastest and most efficient way to help Americans is through energy conservation," Alberswerth added. "Efforts and incentives to reduce energy demands will save families money, reduce greenhouse gases, and have an immediate impact."
