- A new bill sponsored by Republicans in the House and Senate would dramatically reduce Washington’s massive real estate holdings and give states more control over land management, which would lead to even greater increases in oil and gas production
There may not be too many lawmakers and administration types very interested in saving the taxpayers money these days, as the spiraling national debt attests, but that doesn’t preclude us from continuing to push for good, common sense solutions that accomplish just that.
Scholars at the Heritage Foundation have just released a new report that describes legislation aimed at letting states manage federal lands, a measure that would boost productivity, efficacy and, thus, save taxpayers money.
The Federal Lands Freedom Act, sponsored by Senator James Inhofe (R-Okla.) and Representative Diane Black (R-Tenn.), would be especially helpful for states wishing to boost revenues from energy exploration; thanks to the vastness of shale oil deposits in the country and the technology to get it to refineries affordably, there is wonderful opportunity here for the federal government to get out of the real estate business while giving states the change to create jobs, income, revenue and opportunity – all things President Obama claims he supports.
According to an abstract of the Heritage study:
The United States is now the world’s leader in both natural gas and oil production— centuries’ worth of oil, natural gas, and coal resources lie beneath private property as well as under lands owned by state governments. While federally owned lands are also full of energy potential, a bureaucratic regulatory regime has mismanaged land use for decades. The tremendous economic benefits of open energy markets and the proven track record of the individual states’ regulatory structures dictate a reexamination of the way the federal government manages resources on federal lands.
The Act further gives states the freedom to handle all leasing, permits and regulatory programs for development of all energy resources discovered on federal lands.
The study’s authors note that states are already in a position to make the transition to localized control; doing so would result in better, more hands-on management.
“While Congress should pursue opportunities to reduce the size of the federal estate, the Federal Lands Freedom Act is a significant step toward better management of America’s lands and natural resources.
The study notes that the current shale oil and natural gas revolutions have occurred largely on privately held, or state-owned, lands, but that vast untapped potential remains on federally held property. But “a bureaucratic regulatory regime has mismanaged land use for decades,” the study said, resulting in gross under-utilization and diminished potential.
The paper further notes what many advocates of decreasing the federal government’s land ownership have known for some time: that most of the land held by Washington’s bureaucracies is located in the West. In Alaska, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon and Utah, the federal government owns as much as 81 percent of the land; in Arizona, California, Colorado, New Mexico and Wyoming at least 50 percent; and in Montana and Washington, as much as 30 percent. In most Midwestern, Northeastern and Southern states the feds own less than 10 percent of the land, and in many of those states, no land at all.
The study’s authors, Katie Tubb and Nicolas Loris, further noted that since 2009, oil and gas production on private- and state-held lands has increased a whopping 61 percent, while falling 9 percent on federal lands over the same period. They further noted that it takes the Bureau of Land Management 227 days on average to complete a drilling application; it takes just 30 days to complete the same application at the state level. And that is just one step in the lengthy process to extract oil and gas on federal lands.
States managing more of their own land, would increase efficiency immensely (for example, it takes just four days to process an oil and gas permit in Texas, 10 days in California and 21 days in Ohio). That would translate into higher levels of production and less time (and money) spent dealing with bureaucratic red tape.
“The federal estate is massive, consisting of some 635 million acres,” Tubb and Loris write. “The effective footprint is perhaps even larger as limitations on federal lands often impact the use of adjacent state and private lands, and as government agencies lock up lands through informal designations and study areas.
“Under the Federal Lands Freedom act, states will be able to develop a regulatory program for energy development on federal lands and submit the program to the Departments of the Interior, energy, and agriculture. This would be sufficient in lieu of redundant federal requirements, such as the National Environmental Policy Act.”
There’s no question that state-level management of land would result in better efficiency, more opportunity, and faster development, all of which would not only translate into revenue for the states but also for the federal government, in the form of additional taxes. Also, shedding some of its land management bureaucracy would provide an additional revenue stream in the form of savings for Uncle Sam (and taxpayers)
To put this in basketball terms Obama is sure to understand, this one is a lay-up.
The only obstacle to this common sense solution is the anachronistic mindset inside the Beltway, which says that the federal government alone is the better manager of the nation’s assets. That’s demonstrably false, as this new Heritage report concludes, but nevertheless that mindset is a pretty tall hurdle to jump.
What are your thoughts on this issue? TELL US!
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