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| Wind Farms in the Columbia Gorge photo by: Scoand |
We need energy, but at the expense of our fish and wildlife habitat?
What would you
pay to have a say about the places you love to hunt and fish? $100? $500?
$5,000?
It might cost
you $5,000 if a suite of bills introduced in the House passes - and that’s just
to voice an opinion.
Among the
provisions:
-
A
requirement of a $5,000 documentation fee to protest any lease, stifling a
process that is currently free and open to anyone who wants to participate.
-
Prioritizing
energy development over fish and wildlife on public lands.
-
A
mandate that leases be issued within 60 days of payment regardless of protests
or litigation
-
Requires
that a minimum of 25 percent of the leases receive minimal environmental review
and no protests
Bottom line?
These bills are bad for your fishing and hunting.
As a rule, Sportsmen for Responsible Energy Development (SFRED), supports energy development on public lands, but only so far as there is
a balance between that development and the fish and wildlife resources
sportsmen rely on.
This
legislation has been sold as a means to speed up the permitting process and
bring more certainty for oil and gas operators - a way to increase jobs and
resources. But the reality is it wouldn’t necessarily do either and in fact
stands to degrade more fish and wildlife resources, which is a proven economic
engine.
To be fair, the
process in place isn’t perfect. But it’s not completely broken either.
“We recognize
that leasing and permitting procedures and processes sometimes take longer than
they should,” Brad Powell, Western Energy Director for Trout Unlimited, said
during testimony to Congress in April. “But the fact
remains that the energy industry has access to a large amount of public land,
and has developed oil and gas with great success.”
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| Oil and natural gas development, Jonah Fields, Wyoming: photo by bsgordonaspen/EcoFlight, 14 May 2006 |
Just to put it
in perspective:
- 38 million
acres of leases are held by industry.
- Less than
half of the available acreage is in production.
- Industry
holds more than 7,000 approved unused permits to drill for oil and gas on
public lands.
The oil and
gas industry has massive amounts of opportunity for development that it’s not
using right now. Why would Congress want to give them more, especially to the
detriment of sportsmen? In the name of increasing domestic energy supplies,
this legislation is a solution in search of a problem.
Which is all
the more reason to tell your member of Congress that sportsmen - and the lands
they value - matter.
Take a moment
to contact your members of Congress. Ask them to
support sustainable fish and wildlife populations, American sportsmen and our
nation’s outdoor recreation-based economy by voting NO on H.R. 4480, the
Strategic Energy Production Act of 2012.
Sportsmen for Responsible Energy Development (SFRED), a coalition of businesses, organizations and individuals led by Trout Unlimited, the National Wildlife Federation and the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, has been following this set of bills. And so far, the message isn’t exactly “sportsmen friendly.”
Pass this on!
Pass this on!
