Interior Delays Energy Permits At Hook & Bullet Request - Many Skeptical

[hatrack]

WASHINGTON - The Interior Department said Monday it will begin delaying some new oil and gas drilling projects until the effects on wildlife are studied more thoroughly.

But environmentalists said they were skeptical, since the department has routinely ignored its power to defer energy leases for the sake of wildlife. "Actions speak louder," said Peter Aengst, an energy policy analyst for The Wilderness Society in Bozeman, Mont. "I haven't yet seen where they're doing that. It's always been full speed ahead with energy development — lease, lease, lease."

Assistant Interior Secretary Rebecca Watson described the new policy as a response to American Wildlife Conservation Partners, a coalition of groups ranging from Ducks Unlimited to the National Rifle Association. She said it would apply to all 262 million acres — about one of every 10 in the United States — managed by Interior's Bureau of Land Management (news - web sites). "We value them because we think they're the experts on wildlife," Watson said.

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Watson said she told BLM managers to "use your power to temporarily defer leasing" for oil and gas drilling. "What this does is let the BLM managers hold back some areas while the new plans are being developed," she said. Watson said 22 of the new plans are "time-sensitive" because they respond to lawsuits, apply to new national monuments without old plans or speed energy development in New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, Wyoming and Montana."

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"We value them because we think they're the experts . . . " Condescending little tool, isn't she?

[phantom power]

1. This is cute: "power to temporarily defer leasing"

How about the power to *permanently* withhold leasing? That seems like a more useful power to me.

[blindpig]

2. sounds like a wedge issue to me

Repubs have been raiding the demo base since Nixon, paybacks are a bitch. A lot of these folks may harbor various reactionary sentiments but they know what's most important, at least personally. Biophilia comes in various forms. Kerry ought to peel away those votes.

[hatrack]

3. And it won't be hard to do . . .

LOTS of pissed-off hunters & fishers in Alaska about the Tongass logging approvals to date - to say nothing of Big Mac pricing for $10,000 old-growth trees.

Then there's Otero Mesa in NM, most of the Western Slope, and the groundwater contamination in Wyoming thanks to coal-bed methane. There is a lot of low-hanging fruit here just waiting for Kerry to pluck it.

[phantom power]

4. The Democratic party also ought to...

make some kind of official, platform-like statement, promising that we will never try to take away anybody's hunting rifle, shotgun, etc. It's purely anecdotal, but many hunters I know appear to be nearly single-issue voters with respect to gun ownership rights.

Combine that with some tie-ins regarding Republican destruction of public hunting and fishing lands, and we could steal a lot of votes that we've lost over the years to Republican monopolization of 2nd-amendment issues.