Las Vegas Review-Journal (Sunday)
New land priorities ignore Nevada’s needs
Administration’s ‘energy dominance’ plan will crowd out other uses
THE Trump administration, in pursuit of its “energy dominance” public land policy, has rushed to make 1.4 million acres of land in Nevada available for oil and gas leasing — with another 427,000 acres slated to be released in December.
A good chunk of that land has been offered for lease over objections by the Nevada Department of Wildlife and the Virgin Valley Water District. It is troubling that none of the concerns raised by these entities made any difference with the Bureau of Land Management, which oversees the leasing. All requests, regardless of merit, to hold off on leasing were ignored by the agency.
Disregarding state and local government objections is a significant and dangerous departure from the way federal leasing has historically been handled.
The water district fears that oil drilling near the Muddy Creek Aquifer will threaten the drinking water supply for Mesquite and Bunkerville. Much of NDOW’s worries also concerned leasing too close to important water sources, which are vital for both people and wildlife.
The reason this administration is running roughshod over local concerns is because White House and Interior Department directives (Executive Order 13783 and Secretarial Order 3349) have subordinated all other natural resource values, including water supply for Nevada communities, to oil and gas development.
Luckily, the administration’s indiscriminate efforts to make oil and gas drilling the dominant use of our public lands have misfired. Most of the parcels offered for lease failed to receive bids. Industry interest right now is in proven oil-producing areas, such as the Permian Basin in Texas and New Mexico.
The long-term risk to our public lands and waters is still there, however, and will be as long as Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke and others in the administration remain hellbent on pursuing so-called “energy dominance” at the expense of commonsense multiple use management.
At a minimum, once parcels put up for lease are passed over by industry, BLM should immediately start managing them for other uses and to serve the purposes for which they are best suited. This is all the more important when stakeholders such as NDOW and water providers have raised serious concerns.
To that end, Conservatives for Responsible Stewardship recently petitioned Zinke to withdraw 117,000 acres of previously offered public lands in five states, including Nevada, from future oil and gas leasing.
More than 60,000 acres of the lands covered in the CRS petition are located in Nevada, including parcels that NDOW and the Virgin Valley Water District sought to protect from oil and gas drilling. In addition to drinking water sources, they include big game habitat, trout streams, outdoor recreation areas and significant historic sites.
The administration appears utterly dismissive of any land use or value other than oil and gas drilling and is turning this nation’s long-standing multiple-use management philosophy on its head.
Such a helter-skelter rush to lease as much of America’s public lands as possible not only fails from a stewardship perspective, but it makes no sense from an energy perspective. The domestic oil and gas production coming from established and productive shale basins in North Dakota, Texas/New Mexico and Pennsylvania is providing a record-setting supply with no end in sight.
Responsible stewardship and multiple use management are conservative principles that have guided the management of our public lands for more than a century. Recklessly abandoning this tried and true approach threatens access, resource quality, recreation and the diverse revenue streams that Nevada and other Western states now depend on.
The administration’s ill-conceived “energy dominance” plan is producing nothing but the gross mismanagement of resources.
As great conservative icons from Theodore Roosevelt to Ronald Reagan understood, the truly conservative path follows a balanced approach to managing our public lands and waters, and one that respects the wonderful and diverse values that makes Nevada and other Western states a great place to live.
A good chunk of that land has been offered for lease over objections by the Nevada Department of Wildlife and the Virgin Valley Water District.