Angie Craig: “Will the Senator yield? In listening to this discussion and the points being made by my colleagues, I agree that we…”

“Will the Senator yield? In listening to this discussion and the points being made by my colleagues, I agree that we should not be shifting costs as BLM apparently proposed. Nor should other charges and fees for other energy and mineral permitting be put forward. We want our companies to put that money in the ground, not in the Federal Treasury with no guarantee that any of it will be spent on better energy permitting. Surely out of the $1.8 billion already being received from industry's exploration and development of Federal oil and gas resources alone we can fund the planning, environmental, permit processing and other responsibilities of the Federal Government. I am pleased that my colleagues were successful in amending the energy conference agreement to stop the cost sharing proposal and commend them for doing so. I would also like to point out that as chairman of the Energy and Natural Resources Subcommittee on Public Lands and Forests, I plan to hold hearings this Congress on Federal lands energy and mineral access. As part of that hearing, I intend to find out more about the ability of our Federal agencies to process leasing, drilling and other applications in a timely manner. Delaying permits is the same as delaying energy and mineral supplies to those who need them. In addition, shifting costs to those who need the permits for any of these activities is also a way of discouraging what needs to be done to find and produce the supplies we need.…”