Statements on Introduced Bills and Joint Resolutions

Floor Speech

STATEMENT ON INTRODUCED BILLS AND JOINT RESOLUTIONS -- (Senate - August 01, 2007)

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By Mr. TESTER:

S. 1931. A bill to amend the Mineral Leasing Act to ensure that development of certain Federal oil and gas resources will occur in a manner that protects water resources and respects the rights of surface owners, and for other purposes; to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.

Mr. TESTER. Mr. President, I rise today to introduce the Surface Owner Protection Act to help protect private property on split estates.

The Western U.S. is experiencing a boom in oil and gas exploration that will contribute to the domestic supply of energy in this country, improve our National security and help control energy costs for American consumers. But if it is not done right oil and gas leasing can be damaging to wildlife, pollute our water, and scar the land. Furthermore, in many areas of the West the land is in split estates where mineral rights are owned by the Federal Government, but the surface is owned by a private land owner. Oftentimes the process of oil and gas leasing and drilling does not adequately involve surface owners or protect their agricultural livelihoods that are disrupted during energy development. Split estates cover 58 million acres in the U.S., and 11.7 million acres in Montana alone. That is just slightly smaller than the size of New Jersey, Maryland, and Delaware combined.

In states like Montana, Wyoming, and Colorado there has been a rapid increase in the number of leases and the amount of acreage that the Bureau of Land Management is approving for oil and gas exploration. It is expected that coal-bed methane development will bring tens of thousands of wells in coming decades. The rapid growth is causing general unease in some areas because surface owners have few rights when it comes to oil and gas exploration on their land.

Too often surface owners have no idea that their minerals are owned by someone else or when they are going to be leased. The legislation I am introducing today is meant to better involve surface owners in the process of oil and gas exploration by requiring notification to surface owners when their land is going to be leased, require operators to replace any water that disrupts other users, and requires bonding for the reclamation of surface land. Surface owners should have a clear role in each step of the process from the day a lease sale is announced to the time when the rigs are gone and reclamation work is completed.

Critics of this measure will argue that it gets in the way of drilling. I would say that oil and gas drilling should not get in the way of farmers and ranchers going about their business without clear legal guidelines. The protection of private property rights is crucially important as a personal freedom in the U.S. and we must take steps to protect them.

I encourage members of this body to support this measure as we move forward because I believe that we can improve the way we conduct oil and gas leases on split estates. A better balance between oil and gas interests and surface owners is possible, but we need to make sure that we develop our energy resources in an appropriate manner with respect to private property owners.

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