Sea change needed in environmental regs to protect public lands
By Oscar Simpson/Chair, NM Backcountry Hunters and Anglers
10/14/11
A “renaissance” in domestic oil drilling has led the United States to record the highest percentage increase in oil production out of any country across the globe. The number of drilling rigs operating in the country is at a 20-year high.
Increased oil and gas production in the United States has allowed our country to be a net exporter of petroleum products in November, December and February of 2010 and March and June of this year, according to data compiled by the government Energy Information Administration. Currently, the oil and gas industry is sitting on top of more than 6,500 unused drilling permits and has leased about 41 million acres of our public land – an area that is bigger than the entire state of Pennsylvania.
Yet even as the oil and gas industry derives massive profits from our public lands and receive millions in subsidies each year, they want more. They want further deregulation and the remainder of our protected public land, our roadless and wilderness study areas scattered throughout the United States opened up for development (60 million acres). Presently 75 percent of our public land is open to development and federal legislation introduced in the House of Representatives, H.R.1581, would eliminate the protection of these lands – public land that has been protected for decades.
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