Pete Domenici: “In a nutshell, the Bingaman amendment is not good for the Indians in the United States. If we are crafting a bill here…”

“In a nutshell, the Bingaman amendment is not good for the Indians in the United States. If we are crafting a bill here that says we want them to develop their energy resources, the amendment before us takes the unprecedented step of applying the NEPA process to the Indian tribes just as if they were the Federal Government. This amendment goes well beyond current environmental regulations and adds unnecessary regulations and costs to the tribal energy projects. This proposal is opposed by numerous Indian tribes and tribal associations that are already burdened by the lease approval process through the Federal bureaucracy.”