Under-performing Federal Stewardship Threatens Energy Development Potential

Abstract

Under-performing Federal Stewardship Threatens Energy Development Potential

Government “stewardship” of energy and mineral resources on federal lands—almost one third of US territory—has historically underperformed and is now demonstrably underserving the nation. Current federal land management policies are largely out of step with the nation's requirements and expectations of a stable resource base of oil and gas (and minerals) and an adherence to proper multiple land use practices. Most of our onshore oil and gas are currently produced from private and some state lands, indicating access to federal lands through leasing has been largely chocked off. There have been steady decreases in the number of federal leases, total acres leased, and exploration permits issued for onshore and offshore oil and gas in the past thirty years. Another example of poor federal stewardship is the practice of “withdrawals” of public land that preclude resource development under existing mineral laws, meaning that the practice eliminates future development on those lands for some period of time, irrespective of the occurrence of valuable mineral resources on those lands. Withdrawals are initiated by very few government officials (sometimes one), can be political, may involve disproportionately large acreages, and are usually irreversible. Large withdrawals that are irreversible are among the worst examples of stewardship on federal lands because they are decided without regard to the occurrence of unique geologic deposits, banning all future development of those resources. Withdrawing large tracts that contain key energy or mineral resources has the potential to create artificial shortages, setting up the need to import those resources, possibly from adversaries. A critical question regarding the cumulative effect (and threat) of ongoing federal land withdrawal is: has the government already removed so much land from energy and mineral exploration and development that it poses a serious threat to the long-term resource availability for our nation? Policymakers at all levels of government need to quickly find alternatives to inefficient federal control of vast tracts of lands in western states—such as helping to enable the states themselves to effectively manage the lands in their best interest and that of the nation.

AAPG Datapages/Search and Discovery Article #90218 © 2015 Eastern Section Meeting, Indianapolis, Indiana, September 20-22, 2015