BLM to hike drilling OKs by nearly half

The federal Bureau of Land Management will boost permit approvals for oil and gas drilling on public lands 44 percent in 2011, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said Tuesday. Salazar said the bureau, one of the agencies he oversees, is set to approve about 7,200 permits in 2011, compared with 5,000 in 2010. "We are leaning into the production side onshore," Salazar said at a media roundtable in Oklahoma City. The bureau is set to hold 33 oil and gas lease sales this year and a similar number in 2012, said Bob Abbey, the BLM director. "It is encouraging to hear they are addressing permitting (issues)," said Kathleen Sgamma, director of government affairs for the Western Energy Alliance, an industry trade group. "But that is only part of the process. Project approvals are at a standstill," Sgamma said. Those approvals are being slowed by re-evaluations of existing plans and environmental analysis...more

This tells us two things: 1) Obama doesn't want to take the heat for high fuel prices, and 2) These guys really, really don't want their budget to get cut.