Pete Domenici: “The history of noncompliance by the Bureau of Land Management in getting this work done in New Mexico is miserable. In…”

“The history of noncompliance by the Bureau of Land Management in getting this work done in New Mexico is miserable. In our State, we are a little ahead of Wyoming. We have 26 percent that have had their environmental assessments done. The rest aren't going to have it done before their permits expire and are exactly subject to what I have been telling the Senate on the floor. My friend from Illinois says: Keep the pressure on the BLM. Don't take the pressure off by saying you can issue the permit. But I say you continue your assessment work, and when you have finished and find that you want to make some changes to the permit, if you must, then do it, and you have the automatic right to do it. We are not on the floor of the Senate trying to risk the security of hundreds and hundreds of ranchers--including these people--for the purpose of keeping the heat on the Bureau of Land Management, which ought to get their own work done. As a matter of fact, there are many people who think the assessments and impact statements are very expensive, that in many cases they don't even fix the problems. We have a NEPA law that is a couple of decades or more old. We attempt to apply it to every kind of environmental issue around. The cases it applies to with the least efficacy are ranchlands because they are small 'events.' We had in mind big governmental actions before we applied the NEPA laws to land.”