Campbell County Commissioner Testifies in Support of Barrasso-Tom Udall BLM Oil and Gas Permitting Bill

Press Release

Today, U.S. Senator John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) welcomed the Chairman of the Campbell County Board of Commissioners, Mark Christensen, to the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. Senator Barrasso invited Commissioner Christensen to testify on his bipartisan BLM Permit Processing Improvement Act of 2014 (S. 2440) that he introduced with Senator Tom Udall (D-NM) in June.

S. 2440 would reauthorize and make permanent the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) pilot program for oil and gas permitting. This program provides funding for local BLM offices, including the Buffalo, Casper, Newcastle and Rawlins Field offices, for processing applications for permits to drill (APDs). S. 2440 would also require that 75 percent of all revenues from APD fees be made available to the BLM state office in the state from which the fees were derived.

"I'd like to thank Campbell County Commissioner Mark Christensen for his willingness to testify at our important hearing today," said Barrasso. "As the Commissioner of one of the leading energy producing counties in the country, Mark is one of the best people to speak about how energy production helps Wyoming's families, our economy and local communities."

During the hearing, Senator Barrasso highlighted the need to reauthorize the BLM Permitting Program so the people of Wyoming and other states can create jobs and expand local economic opportunities.

"For years, federal policies have put federal lands at a competitive disadvantage with the state lands and private lands. This is especially true when it comes to oil and natural gas production," said Barrasso. "We should stop making it harder to produce energy on federal lands. S. 2440 is one way to do that. This bill will give local BLM offices the financial resources necessary to process oil and gas permits in a timely manner. It will also give BLM the ability to anticipate where permitting backlogs may develop in the future and take steps to prevent them from occurring."

Campbell County Commissioner Mark Christensen testified in support of Senator Barrasso's S. 2440 and about the important role local BLM offices play in processing oil and gas permits in Wyoming.

"Many of you know we produce approximately 40% of the nation's coal, what you may not know, is that Campbell County is also the top producer of crude oil in Wyoming. Almost all of this coal and oil is produced on federal lands. To produce energy to fuel America at this volume, we are heavily dependent on the efficiency and effectiveness of our local BLM field office in Buffalo, Wyoming," said Christensen. "That is why we are grateful to Senators Udall and Barrasso, as well as the bi-partisan co-sponsors of S. 2440, the BLM Permit Processing Improvement Act of 2014."

Commissioner Christensen also testified on how permitting delays have a negative impact on Wyoming communities since oil and gas operators will simply move to other states to develop energy.

"Today, operators know that if they cannot get a timely permit in Wyoming, they have somewhere else to go. This is already happening, with oil and gas production on federal lands decreasing again last year as capital fled to private land plays," said Christensen. "That is bad news for federal coffers and terrible news for local economies in heavy public lands states and counties…The increased production generated from the timely issuance of APDs by BLM benefits not just the State of Wyoming and its counties, but the entire U.S. because of the large federal land and mineral ownership in Wyoming, and shifts the reliance for energy from foreign sources to domestic."

In addition to Senators Tom Udall and John Barrasso, S. 2440 is co-sponsored by 6 Democrats and 6 Republicans including Senators Mike Enzi (R-WY), Michael Bennet (D-CO), Martin Heinrich (D-NM), Orrin Hatch (R-UT), Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND), Dean Heller (R-NV), Jon Tester (D-MT), John Hoeven (R-ND), Mark Udall (D-CO), Jim Inhofe (R-OK), John Walsh (D-MT) and Mike Lee (R-UT).

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