Political Quotes

“Mr. Chairman, in February of 2014, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service issued an advance notice of proposed rulemaking called--and it is important to know what it is called--Management of Non-Federal Oil and Gas Rights. In December of last year, the proposed rule was posted and comments were due in February of this year. Mr. Chairman, States--States, not the Federal Government, States-- largely regulate oil and gas operations except in circumstances where the Federal Government has ownership of the mineral rights. That obviously is not the case in this rule, given its title. Where there is Federal ownership, it is the Bureau of Land Management that has regulatory authority. And for an agency that has hundreds of personnel and decades of experience, even they have a hard time keeping up with the workload and maintaining adequate expertise in their agency. But, Mr. Chairman, not only do States have the authority and the expertise to regulate oil and gas industry, they have the most natural and obvious incentive to do it well. The State regulators live in the States where the minerals reside. Now, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service does not have the personnel or the expertise to regulate oil and gas operations, as demonstrated by GAO recommendations.…”