The Legal Phalanx Between Americans and Energy Freedom

Conn Carroll /

Last week the House of Representatives approved a funding bill that reversed a quarter-century ban on drilling for oil off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. While this is a major victory for American consumers, it is only the beginning. The left and their environmental allies have constructed a massive web of bureaucracy between America’s natural resources and American consumers. The Institute for Energy Research has detailed the cumbersome and inefficient process energy producers must go through before a drop of oil or a cubic foot of natural gas can be produced:

Step 1: The Minerals Management Service (MMS) Prepares a 5-Year Leasing Program

MMS, a part of the Department of the Interior, regulates the OCS under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (OCSLA). Section 18 of OCSLA requires MMS to adopt a 5-year leasing program which describes the scheduled lease sales for a 5-year period, along with policies pertaining to the size and location of sales and the receipt of fair-market value. To develop the five-year program, MMS takes the following steps:

1. Publishes a Request for Comment and Information in the Federal Register
2. 45-day Comment Period (the comment period closed last week on MMS’s new 5-year plan starting in 2010)
3. Publishes a Draft Proposed Program in the Federal Register
4. 60-day Comment Period
5. Publishes a Proposed Leasing Program and Draft Environmental Impact Statement Published in the Federal Register
6. 90-day Comment Period
7. Publishes a Proposed Final Leasing Program and Final Environmental Impact Statement in the Federal Register
8. 60-day Period in which Congress can object
9. 5-year Program Announced

This process usually takes 18-36 months to complete. In the case of offshore exploration on the West and East coasts, it is likely the process will take longer than 36 months. First, environmental special interest groups would likely sue MMS on the Environmental Impact Statements. Environmental Impact Statements are especially lawsuit prone because the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) calls for “a detailed statement” on the environmental impacts of an action and alternatives to that action. These “detailed statements” now run thousands of papers because over time, judges have added to the list of things that need to be studied in the Environmental Impact Statement.

Second, while Congress may allow the moratorium to expire at the end of September, there will likely be a fight during the 60-day period in which Congress can object to a final leasing plan.

Step 2: MMS Conducts Actual Lease Sales (more…)