Energy Tomorrow Blog
NEPA Reform Needed to Improve Local Infrastructure
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Sam Winstel
Posted February 24, 2020
The nation’s infrastructure needs some love.
To reverse the deteriorating state of the U.S. transportation, communication and energy supply networks – which recently earned a D+ from the American Society of Civil Engineers – we need a national commitment to more purposefully and efficiently get important projects off the drawing board and into development. Without it, America’s ability to compete in the 21st-century economy will be hindered.
As we’ve discussed (here and here), proposed reforms to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) are critical to accelerating much-needed infrastructure improvements in every state and, in turn, creating good-paying jobs and spurring economic growth. Review processes under NEPA – which was last updated in 1978 – have significantly impeded infrastructure progress, delaying projects for years and years.
Progress on Increasing Access to Federal Lands
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Mark Green
Posted July 28, 2017
It’s a positive step – for U.S. energy, economic growth, consumer benefits and climate progress – for the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to begin rescinding its 2015 hydraulic fracturing rule – one that we argue duplicates existing and effective state regulation and risks delaying energy development, potentially impacting consumers. The agency should follow this up by moving swiftly to improve the permitting process for natural gas and oil development on federal lands, as Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke ordered earlier this month.
Infrastructure, Energy Progress Hinge on Cutting Red Tape
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Mark Green
Posted May 27, 2015
Wall Street Journal commentary (Engler and McGarvey): America’s business and labor leaders agree: President Obama and Congress can do more to modernize the permitting process for infrastructure projects—airports, factories, power plants and pipelines—which at the moment is burdensome, slow and inconsistent.
Gaining approval to build a new bridge or factory typically involves review by multiple federal agencies—such as the Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Forest Service, the Interior Department, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Bureau of Land Management—with overlapping jurisdictions and no real deadlines. Often, no single federal entity is responsible for managing the process. Even after a project is granted permits, lawsuits can hold things up for years—or, worse, halt a half-completed construction project.
Seizing Our Energy Moment
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Mary Schaper
Posted January 22, 2015
The Bakken Magazine: “Do not pass Go. Do not collect $200.”
This is the dreaded phrase on the “Go to Jail Card” that you’ve likely drawn, or at least heard of, when playing the game of Monopoly. Drawing this card is an all-around bummer. You lose a chance at scooping up valuable property before others do, you don’t get to collect $200 that you might need to purchase property, and it increases the chance that you lose the game. But at least it’s just a game. Right?
Wrong. What many people probably don’t realize is that we’re in a real-life game similar to Monopoly, but this one is focused on the global oil market, not property. And, it just so happens that we’re stuck holding the “Do not pass Go” card.
Fed Red Tape = Lost Production and Royalties
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Mark Green
Posted July 2, 2014
An inspector general’s report issued this week really underlines what industry has been telling Washington over the past couple of years: Permitting for oil and natural gas drilling on federal lands takes too long, generates too much uncertainty and is a hindrance to developing reserves that are critical to the country’s energy security today and tomorrow.
The Interior Department inspector general’s assessment of the effectiveness and efficiency of the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) onshore drilling permit process basically shows that the process is neither very effective nor efficient.
Oil Prices and Market Signals
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Mark Green
Posted March 14, 2012