Industrial natural gas consumers have called on a House appropriations subcommittee to increase the U.S. Forest Service’s budget for permit processing by $18 million in fiscal 2007 to spur oil and gas activity in the Rocky Mountain West region.

“There is no greater energy-related spending priority within the federal government in the short term,” wrote Paul N. Cicio, president of the Industrial Energy Consumers of America (IECA), in a letter Wednesday to Rep. Charles Taylor (R-NC), chairman of the House Subcommittee on Interior, Environment and Related Agencies. The subcommittee is scheduled to mark up the fiscal 2007 spending bill for Interior, the Environmental Protection Agency and related agencies on Thursday.

The industrial consumer group urged the House panel to allocate $100 million for the Forest Service’s permitting activities, up from the $81.2 million that the Bush administration proposed for the Department of Agriculture agency for fiscal 2007. The IECA supports the administration’s request of $115.3 million for the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) leasing and permitting activities.

“It does us no good for the BLM to increase permitting only to have them delayed by the Forest Service,” Cicio said. “It is for this reason IECA strongly encourages the committee to increase the Forest Service amount to $100 million.”

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