Despite setback, former federal lands officials urge Salazar to stay course on drilling reforms

Former top federal public lands officials are urging the Obama administration to stay the course on onshore oil and gas leasing reforms despite a major setback from a U.S. district judge in Wyoming earlier this month. Judge Nancy Freudenthal ruled in favor of the Denver-based Western Energy Alliance, finding that oil and gas companies had proven “recognizable injury” when the Interior Department last year rolled back so-called “categorical exclusions” that allowed expedited environmental review of oil and gas leases on public lands. Mike Dombeck, head of the Forest Service from 1997 to 2001, joined several other top Forest Service and BLM officials in sending a letter late last week to the Obama administration pointing out that the judge “did not rule on the merits of the reform of these short cuts, only the process – and certainly did not suggest a return to the ‘leap before you look’ process of leasing land for oil and gas [drilling].” “The court’s decision did not suggest a return to those short cuts and we encourage the administration must continue to move forward with responding to the problems outlined by the Government Accountability Office on categorical exclusions, as well as its other needed reforms,” Dombeck said...more