John Hoeven Grills Department of Interior Official On Significant Decrease In Drilling Permits

4 months ago

In a Senate Energy Committee hearing prior to the Congressional recess, Sen. John Hoeven (R-ND) spoke about drilling permits for domestic oil production.

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Transcript

00:00And now we have Senator Hoeven. Thank you Mr. Chairman and thank you to you and

00:06the ranking member for holding this hearing today. Secretary, appreciate you

00:11being here. One of the things we worked on very hard in the Theodore Roosevelt

00:16National Park is to maintain the horses that are there, the wild horses that have

00:22been there for obviously a very long time. There was some attention by the

00:27Park Service to consider removing the horses. We had a public process, a lot of

00:33input. People very, very, very much want horses in that park. I've worked, secured

00:39a commitment from the Park Service to maintain horses in the park and not only

00:43horses but a genetically diverse herd, a large enough herd to maintain their

00:48genetic diversity. Are you committed to making sure that we continue to retain

00:53horses in the park and maintain an adequate herd so that the genetics are

00:59adequately preserved? Senator, let me say it was it was nice to speak with you on

01:03the phone when we were leading into that decision and I want to thank you for

01:07your leadership on that issue. I want to thank you for your close communication

01:11with our regional director. I know your office has a very good relationship with

01:15him and you know the Park Service has decided to take a step back, you know,

01:20from its plan and look again at horses at Theodore Roosevelt and I think

01:26they're, you know, my role will be to work with them and work with you to find

01:31that right management level for that herd that is the right management level

01:36for the herd and then is also we also want to talk about sort of the resources

01:39needed to maintain that herd, right? The Park Service, you know, we've got to

01:44protect all of those resources and you know all of that. I mean you know the

01:47unit very well so I look forward to working together on it. Thank you and

01:51both at least one or more of the tribes in the state have offered to assist in

01:56any way shape or form Standing Rock as well as the state of North Dakota and

02:01there's a lot going on out there so you know in your travels you may want to

02:05come out but there's a ton going on in the park. Wonderful. Horses are an

02:09important part of it so thank you for and the regional administrator

02:15Administrator Frost has been just outstanding. We've worked with him before

02:18as you know on elk and other things and he's yes he does a fine job. I've known

02:23Bert for 20 years. He's a really easy guy to work with. Yeah, he's a good man.

02:29Thank you on that. Now one of the challenges that we've got is that the

02:35that you're looking at what we call or what you call I should say a resource

02:43management plan in the Dakotas. The challenge with this at least the way

02:47that you've proceeded so far is that it would really close off leasing oil and

02:53gas acreage and also our coal acreage and you have to understand in North

02:57Dakota maybe you do but we have split ownership between interior the state and

03:05between private individuals. So for example the federal government might not

03:10own any of the surface acres but they might own some of the mineral acres

03:14underneath. The state might own some and private individuals might own some. So if

03:19in this resource management plan you close off access or refuse to lease your

03:24minerals all of a sudden whether it's oil or coal or anything else they're

03:29stopped and you might not even own any of the surface acreage right and so then

03:33they would have to go somewhere else or go around you. That disenfranchised not

03:36only the state of North Dakota but also those individuals. So you need to work

03:41with us on this management plan and again it goes back to multiple use you

03:46know in the grasslands and in the federal lands and so whether it's BLM

03:52whether it's you know the National Grasslands any of these and of course we

03:57work with Department of Ag on that but we've got to be able to access those so

04:01that people aren't unfairly disenfranchised. Yeah thank you Senator

04:06and if I'm confirmed I absolutely will commit to working with you on that I do

04:09I have a little bit of experience believe it or not we have a mixed estate

04:13situation in Big Cypress National Preserve in Florida privately held

04:17minerals publicly held surface estate so I have a little bit of experience there

04:21so yes I look forward to working with you on that if I'm confirmed. And you

04:26know obviously we do an incredible amount in ag and energy livestock all

04:30those kind of things but it's also tourism and recreation we do it all

04:32out there we truly follow that multiple use but we've got to make sure that

04:37we're able to access lands you know properly and fairly for both the state

04:41and for individuals. Thank you Senator. Okay I guess the other thing I'd want to

04:46ask about is the Biden administration put out numbers on drilling permits and

04:52it said that there had been more drilling permits approved than were

04:58actually drilled and at one time they were saying there were more drilling

05:03permits approved through the Biden administration then for the same amount

05:06of time during the Trump administration now that's come out and that number has

05:10been dropped significantly by something like a thousand drilling permits and so

05:15I would like to make sure we have the accurate information you know we're

05:20concerned obviously that the price of gasoline is up and believe that nobody

05:25can do it I mean we produce over 1.2 million barrels a day just in my state

05:29and nobody has better environmental standards and so we can't allow Russia

05:35or OPEC or Iran or anyone else to produce for the world we need to be you

05:41know producing not only for ourselves and others just to bring prices down

05:46fight inflation and really for geopolitical security. So if you would I

05:53would like those latest updated numbers if you would provide those. I will take

05:58that back senator and make sure that those those get to you. Thank you. Thank

06:01you. Thank You Mr. Chairman.

John Hoeven Grills Department of Interior Official On Significant Decrease In Drilling Permits

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