Pete Domenici: “the amendment will do the following: It will force the tribes to pay the cost of NEPA, extend the bureaucratic delays of…”

“the amendment will do the following: It will force the tribes to pay the cost of NEPA, extend the bureaucratic delays of energy projects, and diminish tribal sovereignty. There isn't a tribe in the country that would volunteer for this program because it doesn't do anything to improve their current process. So why would they volunteer to join it? I am confused by the purpose of the amendment. If the intention is to mandate that the tribes comply with NEPA for every single lease or permit, why not offer an amendment to strike the entire Indian energy title and argue for the status quo? This amendment goes far beyond existing law and expands NEPA beyond the scope of the Federal Government to cover tribes, independent of any Federal action. By requiring an environmental impact statement to be performed for every lease, it will impose a cost of hundreds of thousands of dollars to be financed by the tribes. A cost they should not have to afford. If adopted, the amendment would encourage the generation of paper, not the generation of natural gas and crude oil and coal, which I thought we were here supposed to do. The objective of title III has to be to help the tribes by streamlining current lease approval processes that have hampered investment and the development of the Indian tribal lands as far as energy is concerned.”