Furthering their efforts to remove processes for providing checks and balances on the use of public lands, the BLM, under the Bush Administration, removed from its regulations a section that gives two congressional committees the authority to require the Secretary of the Interior to temporarily place public lands off-limits to oil and gas drilling. The 1976 Federal Land Policy and Management Act (Public Law 94-599, found in Title 43 of the U.S. Code, Chapter 35 starting with Section 1701) created the framework for BLM's mission of managing public lands for multiple use (e.g., recreation and resources). It also provides the House Natural Resource Committee and the Senate's Energy and Natural Resources Committee the ability to vote to require the Interior Secretary to temporarily halt oil and gas drilling on these lands. Until now.

Why would the BLM make this kind of move? Overall, the provision allowing the two committees to temporarily halt oil and gas drilling has only been used 5 times. Most recently, Rep. Grijalva (D-Arizona) used it earlier this year to try and halt uranium mining along the Grand Canyon. The House Natural Resource Committee voted 20-2 to require the Secretary of the Interior to halt further development of this initiative. The potential for uranium mining along the Grand Canyon is even more important to pay attention to, as one of the other regulatory changes being made by the Bush Administration this month would allow agencies, on their own, to determine whether dumping waste material from the mining process into rivers would pose any environmental or health risks. Currently, this requires a wildlife biologist to sign off on. This is one of the reasons the Arizona Representative, as well as others, was interested in halting the process. The Colorado River provides drinking and irrigation waters to much of the west, not to mention the recreation economy it drives. At any rate, the Department of the Interior has yet to issue any emergency order halting the leasing of land for drilling, claiming that there were not enough Republicans present at the vote to constitute a quorum.

So again, why would the agency charged with protecting and enlarging public lands and responsibly managing there multiple use want to change this? Well, the BLM essentially operates under the supervision of the Secretary of the Interior, a politically appointed position. In a nutshell, while Congress passes laws, it is then assigned to each Executive Department to implement those laws. Often, Congress leaves the laws purposefully vague and requires that the appropriate department promulgate regulations putting the details to the law (they can also specify that regulations cannot be added). So, FLPMA goes to the Department of the Interior for implementation. The Department of the Interior is run by the Secretary of the Interior who is appointed by and works directly for the President. The current Secretary of the Interior is Dirk Kempthorne, who in 5 of his 6 years as a Senator scores a perfect 0 when rated by the League of Conservation Voters. He also has the dubious record of protecting fewer endangered species (plants and animals) than any other Secretary of the Interior ever. Ok, so back on track. Putting it all together, the President tells the Secretary what they want, and the Secretary then tells the Department what the President wants, and that is what the Department has to do (unless the Congress passes legislation that does not provide enough leeway for this type of interpretation, or even specifically outlaws it.). In that sense, if you think of the BLM as the aggregate of the thousands of employees that work there, its probably not fair to say that "the BLM removed regulations", but is more appropriate to say the President instructed the BLM to do so. And that is why the BLM would want to change the regulations, in order to remove a barrier to the President's agenda of leaving a process in place that makes it as difficult as possible to slow, halt, or overturn oil and gas drilling on public lands.