Energy Commission Designates Better BLM Funding as Priority

Wednesday December 8, 2004 – In its new comprehensive report released today, the bipartisan National Commission on Energy Policy (NCEP) has singled out increased funding for the Department of Interior’s (DOI) Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in its recommendations. The report, “Ending the Energy Stalemate: A Bipartisan Strategy to Meet America’s Energy Challenges,” recommends improving the ability of the BLM to “evaluate and manage access to natural gas resources on public lands.” Roughly one-third of energy produced in the United States comes from DOI-managed lands. The BLM is by far the biggest of the five DOI agencies overseeing that production, administering more than 261-million surface acres of public lands and 700 million acres of subsurface mineral estate, primarily in 12 western states.



As demand for natural gas in particular has increased, the BLM has moved to allow increased production on its lands. Leaders from partner organizations of the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership (TRCP) have worked together through a TRCP Energy Development Working Group to establish with federal, state and private entities, specific methods for ensuring that energy development is not expanded at the expense of fish and wildlife resources. A fundamental barrier standing in the way of implementing these agreed-upon methods has been a lack of funding for the agencies, namely the BLM and state fish and wildlife agencies that would ensure they are carried out.



Trout, elk, mule deer, pronghorn antelope, lesser prairie chickens, and sage grouse all rely on specific conditions on the western public lands managed by BLM. If drilling operations don’t include proper steps to avoid the underground spread of contaminants into streams and rivers, delicate native trout could suffer. Improper or overly dense placement of equipment could disrupt elk, mule deer, and antelope migration and negatively impact their reproduction. Ground nesting birds, such as prairie chickens and grouse, may see their numbers go down further if drills aren’t spaced adequately and if operations aren’t curtailed during key windows in their reproductive cycle. These sorts of considerations can only be addressed if BLM and state fish and wildlife agencies have the adequately trained staff and resources to address them.



Therefore, the TRCP Energy Development Working Group, led by partner organizations including Boone and Crockett, Trout Unlimited, the International Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies, the North American Grouse Partnership, the Wildlife Management Institute, the Izaak Walton League of America, and the American Sportfishing Association wholeheartedly endorse the NCEP’s recommendation that agencies like the BLM tasked with overseeing expanded energy development on public western land be given the funding necessary for better fish and wildlife management.



Working Group co-chair Rollie Sparrowe says “the BLM and state fish and wildlife agencies are woefully under funded and understaffed when it comes to fish and wildlife management. Without more people on the ground able to figure out how a new drilling lease or permit will affect fish and wildlife in a given location, we could end up doing long-term harm.” Jim Mosher, Executive Director of the North American Grouse Partnership, and Working Group co-chair adds “we know there are ways to explore, drill and extract that don’t have long term detrimental effects on fish, wildlife and their habitat, but that knowledge is useless if we haven’t ensured there are people and resources for effective monitoring to support BLM actions.” Dave Stalling, Western Field Coordinator for Working Group member Trout Unlimited points out, “the NCEP report underscores the importance of engaging anglers and hunters at the local level in energy development decisions to help ensure the interests of fish and wildlife are fully taken into account.”



The section of the NCEP report on page 49 titled “Land-Use Planning and Permitting” pertains most directly to the concerns of the hunting, fishing and conservation community. This section lays out the important problem of out-of-date, inadequate land-use plans being used to make leasing decisions. For the NCEP report, go to www.energycommission.org.



The NCEP report draws in part on a report the TRCP and some of its partner organizations developed on fish and wildlife needs as related to expanded energy development on western public lands. It puts forth several other policy proposals to help ensure fish and wildlife-friendly energy development beyond securing better funding for the agencies administering expanded development on public land. For a copy of that report, and more information on its proposals or for more information on the Working Group’s statement today, please contact TRCP Director of Communications George Cooper at 202-508-3421 or gcooper@trcp.org.





The Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership is a coalition of leading conservation organizations and individual grassroots partners, working together to conserve fish and wildlife and their habitat, increase funding for conservation and management, and expand access to places to hunt and fish.



For more about the TRCP and its partner organizations visit: www.trcp.org
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America is at that awkward stage. It's too late to work within the system and too early to shoot the bastards.