In a post on his “Balance Sheet” blog, Mark Jaffe at the Denver Post wades in to the debate about drilling on public lands. He writes:
When Willie Sutton was asked why he robbed banks, he replied, or at least is said to have replied: “Because that’s where the money is.”
And so it is with oil and gas, operators are drilling where the money is and that the Center for Western Priorities says just happens to be on land not overseen by federal agencies.
In the piece, he quotes industry representatives who claim that bureaucracy is holding back drilling on federal lands. In fact, as a report by the Congressional Research Service found that industry, not the government is taking longer to approve permits:
“After a lease has been obtained, either competitively or non-competitively, an application for a permit to drill (APD) must be approved for each oil and gas well…in 2006 it took the BLM an average of 127 days to process an APD, while in 2011 it took BLM 71 days. In 2006, the industry took an average of 91 days to complete an APD, but in 2011, industry took 236 days.” – pg. 8
You can read Jaffe’s full blog post here.
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