The Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Monday announced fundamental new management strategies, centering on batch processing and area-wide rules, aimed at speeding up its processing of applications for permits to drill oil and gas. The announcement came after the interior secretary told Congress last week the department would be discarding policies installed by the Clinton administration to expand wilderness areas.

Interior Secretary Gale A. Norton last week told congressional questioners the department would be dispensing with “The Wilderness Handbook,” and the procedures set by the departing administration for managing public lands as “wilderness” even though the lands had not been designated as such. The agency also announced the settlement last week of a long-running lawsuit with the state of Utah, removing wilderness restrictions on about 3 million acres in that state.

Norton is pursuing a multiple use strategy for public lands, and BLM Director Kathleen Clarke said the new policies “will help implement the National Energy Policy. These important steps move us toward a much improved method of working with our energy partners across the country and ensure a reliable supply of affordable energy for America’s families and businesses.”

The policies announced Monday seek to bolster the BLM’s efficiency in processing oil and gas Applications for Permits to Drill (APDs) by:

Orders to conform to the new standards, and procedures for review of progress in complying were sent to all BLM field offices (see www.blm.gov/nhp/news/releases/pages/2003/pr030414_ogpermits.htm ).

Norton’s said last week that the Interior Department would be dispensing with its “Wilderness Handbook,” and would not be classifying any further wilderness areas without direction from Congress. Responding in a letter to questions from Sen. Robert Bennett, R-UT, Norton said that to unilaterally treat areas as wilderness without a congressional blessing would be acting outside of the 1964 and 1976 laws governing public lands (primarily western) passed by Congress.

Interior’s BLM current manages near 23 million acres of wilderness areas, out of the 261 million acres under its jurisdiction. Some 15.5 million acres of BLM land are designated as “Wilderness Study Areas,” and are awaiting either formal congressional designation or a return to general management. “We do not plan any changes to the management of these lands, although we urge Congress to continue its efforts to designate appropriate lands as Wilderness Areas,” Norton said.

Absent a specific designation “the department stands firmly committed to the idea that we can and should manage our public lands to provide for multiple use, including protection of those areas that have wilderness characteristics.” Use of the lands are determined through a planning process which includes public input.

“The new approaches advance the President’s goal of strengthening America’s energy security while giving the BLM, oil and gas producers, and all Americans more effective environmental analyses and less bureaucratic application processing, DOI said in a press release.

The Utah dispute centered on the addition in 1996 of 3 million acres in Utah to the wilderness classification after the door for new areas had been closed by Congress as of 1991. The state had sued the Interior Department in 1996. The settlement, which has been criticized by environmentalists, must be approved by a federal judge in Utah. The BLM had been managing the land as wilderness, but can now consider land-use plans including, drilling, mining and recreation. The settlement document is available at https://www.doi.gov/news/mou.htm .

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