Interior Secretary Salazar is unapologetic about tightening regulations on drilling in public land. (image: csbj.com)

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar had some disparaging words for the Bush administration and its coziness with the oil industry this week. As the New York Times reported, Salazar, in an address given on Wednesday, said his department will be taking a harder look at the leasing of oil and gas on public lands; Salazar said he and his colleagues would not be doing business as the last administration had, serving as a “candy store” for big oil.

Salazar, who said Bush administration policies “carved up the landscape and fueled costly conflicts that created uncertainty for investors and industry,” is looking to cut down on what he sees as pricey legal disputes that arose from protests over land use. He pointed to the statistic that nearly 40 percent of rulings on permit drilling rights were challenged in 2008, as compared to 1 percent in 1998.

A strong proponent of wind energy, especially offshore projects, Salazar has been critical of the oil and gas industry in the past, in particular the industry’s approach to land leases. In late November he claimed the industry had a sense of entitlement to public land and failed to develop properties already under lease.

Looking to do away with what he says costs taxpayers millions in legal costs, Salazar is having the Bureau of Land Management issue new guidelines on the review process of land for development by oil and gas companies. (The bureau oversees oil and gas rights.) Citing the bureau’s director, Bob Abbey, the paper said that, under the new guidelines, teams from various agencies will now be able to consult and officials will “physically inspect the sites rather than making decisions from behind their desks.”

While Salazar’s proposed changes are being championed by some, opposition is already brewing. The oil and gas industry isn’t happy, and some Republicans in Congress are also gearing up to challenge the new guidelines. Kathleen Sgamma, Director of Governmental Affairs for the Independent Petroleum Association of the Mountain States, told the Times that the changes will result in “a bureaucratic command-and-control system.” And Jack Gerard, at the American Petroleum Institute, said what Salazar is looking to do will ultimately be bad for the economy and “further delay and limit American energy resources for all Americans.”

Salazar has not been swayed by industry criticism. He told the Times that he thinks the oil and gas industry is simply “wrong” and is reacting to a sudden loss of power after being, during the Bush administration, “the kings of the world.”

Ken Salazar, Secretary of the Interior. (image: treehugger.com)

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar unleashed a vehement attack on critics within the oil and gas industry, the New York Times reported on Tuesday. Salazar said that the Department’s “oil and gas leasing program is robust…[b]ut you wouldn’t know it if you listened to the untruths coming out of” the oil and gas industry. He went on to slam the industry for acting as if it, not the taxpayers, owns public lands; for not developing areas already under lease and instead trying to lease additional acreage; and for taking out leases ripe for challenge, protest, and litigation, which wastes taxpayer and shareholder money. He also stated that 38 onshore oil and gas leases are scheduled for 2010, and that 32 lease sales were held this year, to demonstrate that his Department is not stonewalling on leases.

Salazar was reacting to public criticism from the Independent Petroleum Association of Mountain States (IPAMS), which last week released a report critical of Department actions. As Kristin Miller reported, the IPAMS report criticizes the Department’s decision to cancel or hold for further review 60 of 77 Utah oil and gas leases granted by the Bush Administration. The report claims that there was “no evidence” of environmental or procedural issues that would support withdrawing the leases, as well as a “’lack of regard’ for the seven-year public planning process” that preceded the leases.

IPAMS offered extensive detail to support their contention that withdrawing the leases was not justified. For example, one of the leases was for a parcel buffered from a national park by existing, previously granted leases, and which had been subject to planning and review to prevent impacts on air quality, paleontology, and engendered species.

Salazar has taken considerable heat for actions that slow the tempo of development; apparently, after the IPAMS report, he’d had enough and decided it was time to hit back.