During a Senate Energy Committee hearing ealier this month, Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY) spoke about the Bureau of Land Management's bonding requirements for oil producers.
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NewsTranscript
00:00Chairman Stoneman, the Bureau's Rock Springs Resource Management Plan will devastate the people of Southwest Wyoming.
00:06Lock up millions of acres of land, local communities, the entire state relies on those lands.
00:12The governor, state legislature, county commissioners, local communities, all strongly oppose this plan.
00:19So why are you ignoring Wyoming's opposition to the plan across the board?
00:23Senator, thanks for the question.
00:25As you know, the Rock Springs plan is, there's a draft out.
00:29There was a public comment period.
00:31There was a lot of hyperbole about facts that were not true about the plan.
00:40So we've done a lot of education work with your constituents about what's in the plan.
00:44More importantly, we extended the public comment period and worked with the governor.
00:48He stood up a task force and those folks got to walk in the shoes of our BLM field staff in Rock Springs
00:56to give us recommendations for the final.
01:00We're digging in, looking at those recommendations.
01:02And I am certain that Wyomingites will see their voices reflected in the final.
01:09Well, I just hope the BLM does not dig in, but actually reverses course on this issue.
01:14Last month, the Bureau took steps to prohibit coal leasing in the Powder River Basin.
01:18The Bureau claims that coal production in the region won't be impacted until the year 2038,
01:2414 years from now.
01:26The Bureau claims that existing leases are sufficient to meet expected demand for coal.
01:30My question then is, why is the Bureau taking this action now,
01:34if you don't say it's going to have any impact for at least 14 years?
01:38Senator, thanks for the question.
01:40As you know, the President has asked us to turn and transition to a clean energy economy.
01:46The lands in the Powder River Basin are leased through 2041.
01:50And so you see the final before you.
01:57The record of decision is still in formulation.
02:03Well, I'd point out that the front page story in the New York Times not too long ago pointed out
02:07that this President's pipe dream is not actually something that can be possibly done in our
02:11country and our needs for energy, as the committee hearings have shown again and again and again.
02:17I think this plan is completely reckless.
02:19Last year, the Powder River Basin supplied 45 percent of all the coal mined in the United States.
02:25And if this carbon-free grid doesn't materialize, and I don't believe it will,
02:31what do you do?
02:31Suggest that we start importing coal from China and other places?
02:35Senator, I have great faith in the ingenuity of the American people.
02:41We are hard at work every day.
02:43We have permitted 7.9 gigawatts in just three and a half years.
02:48I believe we can reach the transition the President has asked us to reach.
02:52Well, I agree that in the ingenuity of the American people, it's really hard when
02:55your agency continues to block efforts to produce the critical minerals that we need
03:00and so much of the product that we need for the American economy.
03:03So in April, your bureau issued a rule that will dramatically raise bonding
03:07requirements on oil and gas producers.
03:10This is money that producers must pay up front in order to operate on federal lands.
03:14According to the data from your own department,
03:17there were only 37 abandoned wells on lands managed by the Bureau.
03:21It's less than one-tenth of one percent of all the wells that the Bureau manages.
03:27So how do you justify your decision to increase bonding requirements by as much as 25-fold?
03:33Senator, both the Government Accountability Office and the Inspector General have written
03:37reports that suggest, I think rightly so, that our bonding rates, which are over 60 years old,
03:44are not high enough.
03:46We have thousands of idled wells on our public lands.
03:50And idled wells are the last stop before they become orphans.
03:55Not all of them become orphans, but the GAO found that thousands of them will.
04:01Well, I don't buy it.
04:03This rule, to me, is completely arbitrary.
04:05It's punitive.
04:06And you're trying to drive oil and gas producers off federal land.
04:09I think it's disgraceful.
04:10Finally, in my remaining time, Wyoming is home to the large population of greater sage-grouse
04:15and its habitat.
04:16For over 15 years, with Republican governors, Democrat governors working together,
04:20Wyoming has been at the forefront of adopting new management approaches to protect the species.
04:26Instead of working with Wyoming, your Bureau plans to upend the state's successful efforts
04:31at balancing conservation with economic development.
04:35Why are you ignoring a state that has proven time and again
04:38that can successfully protect the species?
04:42Senator, respectfully, I have a different view on our work with your state.
04:47We've been meeting twice weekly with the state of Wyoming as we develop the sage-grouse plans.
04:53The only way to make these plans work is to work together with our partners in the states.
05:00And we have been doing so.
05:02And Wyoming has been helping us lead the way with the Wyoming,
05:05with the sage-grouse tax force at WGA.
05:10We are literally line editing the documents together.
05:14So I believe that they are going to have the durability that they need for success for the sage-grouse.
05:20You know, John Kennedy spoke at the University of Wyoming in 1963,
05:24and it was part of his tour of conservation in the West.
05:28And he said, we need to maintain a living balance between man's actions and nature's reactions.
05:34I have a picture of him giving that speech.
05:36Tom Udall's dad, who was Secretary of Interior, was with him that day in Wyoming.
05:40And it just seems that the BLM has gone a long way away from maintaining a living balance
05:46and basically trying to shut down the state of Wyoming.
05:48Thank you, Mr. Chairman.