Political Quotes

“Thanks to my colleague from Utah. I also want to thank the chairman of the Natural Resources Committee, Mr. Hastings, and the ranking member, Mr. Markey, and especially thank the chairman of the Subcommittee on Energy and Minerals, Mr. Lamborn, and the ranking member, Mr. Holt. We worked together on this, and I'm very proud of the outcome. It's a rather benign bill that has rather major ramifications, I believe. I also want to thank the leadership at the Bureau of Land Management for not only doing an excellent job in managing the Federal lands in North Dakota, but their support of this bill and their guidance, frankly, in helping to craft it in a way that meets the objectives. The Energy Policy Act of 2005 established a Federal permit streamlining pilot project to improve the processing of oil and gas applications for drilling on Federal lands. The Montana BLM office in Miles City was included in the pilot project, but what was not known to the drafters of the legislation then was that North and South Dakota are under the direct jurisdiction of that regional office in Miles City. So, without the word ``Dakotas'' in the Energy Policy Act, North Dakota was excluded from this pilot project. That, in normal times, may not be all that important. But as it turns out, North Dakota really is the heart of the largest oil play and the most exciting oil play going on on the continent.…”