The U.S. Senate is about to vote on a national energy plan that will undermine the health of our public lands and National Parks! Please Take Action!This bill would cut the public out of the process of how their land is used, turn over land management to an agency with a single-minded zeal for production over all other values, and rip off the taxpayer.
Contact your Senators and tell them to vote NO on this bill when it comes to the Senate floor on Wednesday morning, November 19th.
To Contact your Senators by phone dial 202-225-3121 and ask for the office of either of your Senators. Tell the staff person who answers that you live in that state and that you expect him to vote NO! on the energy bill. After leaving your message for that Senator, ask to be transferred to the other Senator for your state and leave the same message.
You may also contact your Senators via e-mail by clicking here:and picking your state in "Find Your Senators: Choose a State".
More Information about the Energy Bill
The proposed energy bill destroys any semblance of balance between protecting wildlife on public lands and energy development. It weakens drinking water protections, makes the taxpayers pay polluters for considering environmental impacts and puts the Department of Energy in charge of your public lands. The bill includes:
- Once a complete application is received, the bill allows the BLM only ten days to make decisions on drilling permits. (Sec. 348). The BLM is already overwhelmed and this provision will lead to rushed decisions, made without adequate analysis.
- The Interior Secretary via "Secretarial Order" can designate utility and pipeline corridors across public lands without seeking public input through a land use planning process (Sec. 350).
- Puts the Energy Department in charge of implementing Executive Order 13211, which mandates that federal land management agencies not make take any action without considering its impacts on possible energy development. (Section 346) These are determinations that belong with the agencies managing the land, not the DOE. This further tilts the playing field to making energy development the paramount use of public lands.
- Allows oil and gas lessees to be compensated from royalties for their costs of complying with the National Environmental Policy Act (Sec. 326). This is a dangerous precedent and unfair to taxpayers who are already permitting these companies to profit from their public lands.
- Waives existing National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) environmental review and public participation process for all types of energy development projects on Indian lands in favor of an unspecified new process. Title V.
- Prohibit drilling fluids from being considered pollutants of drinking water under the Safe Drinking Water Act (Sec. 327)