Trump moves to ease way for oil, gas

N.M. environmental advocates fear fracking is coming to 5 forests in state

The Trump administration has proposed relaxing regulations to make it easier for oil and gas companies to operate in national forests, including the five in New Mexico.

It’s the latest effort by the administration to roll back environmental regulations for air, water and other natural resources, fulfilling a promise that President Donald Trump made upon taking office that he would reduce what he considered excessive curbs on industry.

A Santa Fe-based environmental group denounced the proposed rule changes as weakening the U.S. Forest Service’s power to ensure oil and gas operations don’t harm the ecosystem or break laws.

“It would diminish the Forest Service’s authority to oversee or regulate oil and gas development on national forest lands,” said Jeremy Nichols, WildEarth Guardians’ climate and energy program director.

Nichols also expressed concern that laxer rules would clear the way for fracking in the forests — an activity his group has battled against for 12 years.

U.S. Forest Service officials contend they are streamlining and updating rules that are redundant and overly cumbersome.

“The Forest Service is a multiple use agency and our responsibilities include providing access to energy resources to benefit Americans, consistent with safeguarding the health, diversity, and productivity of our nation’s forests and grasslands,” the agency said in an emailed statement.

“Updating our regulations related to oil and gas resources will help us improve efficiencies in the energy program while easing regulatory burdens,” the agency said.

A Forest Service spokeswoman said officials don’t anticipate the proposed rules will lead to additional fracking in New Mexico’s forests.

In a statement on the Federal Register, where the Forest Service posted the proposed changes last week, the agency said it also sought to align its rules with the Bureau of Land Management’s rules for extraction.

Although the bulk of New Mexico’s oil and gas operations are in the Permian and San Juan

basins, a substantial amount of extraction occurs in national forests. Santa Fe National Forest has 49 active oil wells in its northwest corner.

Nichols said his group believes some of the rule changes are drastic and go far beyond the agency’s stated goals of streamlining.

They would give the interior secretary, who’s in charge of the BLM but not the Forest Service, the final say on oil and gas leases, even on Forest Service lands.

The new rules call for the Forest Service to consent to a project upfront and then reject it later if officials find something objectionable, Nichols said. That’s the reverse of the current process, in which the agency reviews a proposal before approving or rejecting it, he said.

That might seem subtle, but it’s significant for an operator to begin with a green light rather than earn it by submitting an environmentally sound plan, Nichols said.

There’s no longer a clause stating the agency must issue a public notice on its decision about a project. Nichols argued this would cloud transparency.

Operators will be allowed to extend deadlines, whereas before they had to stick to a strict schedule, he added.

References to the National Environmental Policy Act and the Endangered Species Act are removed, along with descriptions of potential impacts of oil and gas development.

Nichols called this a covert attempt to help operators sidestep these federal laws. The proposed rule changes combined with Trump’s continual effort to undercut the NEPA and Endangered Species Act puts the forests at risk, he said.

“This would be a pretty big rollback of national forest protections in the American West,” Nichols said.