Public Lands Access

Roundtable Comments: MMS Draft Five-Year OCS Oil and Gas Leasing Program

Western Business Roundtable

On September 20, 2009, the Western Business Roundtable submitted comments regarding the Mineral Management Service’s proposed Five-Year Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) Oil and Gas Leasing Program 2010-2015.

Western Business Roundtable

Read the Roundtable's backgrounder on the enormous and largely untapped domestic energy resource that can be found on publicly owned lands in the oceans off the U.S. – known as the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS), and learn why it is more important than ever that federal laws and regulations are changed to allow responsible access.

Western Business Roundtable

Congressional efforts to stymie the use of hydraulic fracturing would hurt energy consumers and imperil thousands of American jobs.

Western Business Roundtable

In a letter dated October 1, 2009, the Western Business Roundtable applauded the State of Colorado for its leadership on roadless policy issues.

Western Business Roundtable

On November 23, 2009, the Western Business Roundtable submitted comments on the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s proposed Strategic Plan for Climate Change and associated Five-Year Action Plan.

Western Business Roundtable

Two competing bills in the House Natural Resources Committee starkly illustrate a choice facing Congress today, say Western business leaders: promote greater American energy independence by supporting responsible development of the nation's natural resources, or push the U.S. toward increased reliance on foreign energy imports by advancing legislation that seeks to limit domestic access and production. Read More...

BACKGROUNDER: Why the OCS is Critical to American Energy Independence

Western Business Roundtable

Currently, the federal government prevents America from accessing some of the country's most promising homegrown energy resources. Read the Roundtable's backgrounder on why access and responsible development of the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) is critical to American energy independence and take action by submitting comments to the MMS. Read More...

Roundtable Submits Comments on ESA Consultation Rulemaking

Western Business Roundtable

On August 3, 2009, the Western Business Roundtable submitted comments regarding the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service's request for public comments on regulations governing interagency consultation and cooperation under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). Read More...

Roundtable Urges Congress to Support American Energy

Western Business Roundtable

Read the Roundtable's July 30 letter to Members of the U.S. House of Representatives, calling for support of H.R. 2540, The Protecting Investment in Oil Shale the Next Generation of Environmental, Energy and Resource Security Act. Now is the time to support American energy and tap into the estimated trillions of barrels of oil available for recovery in the American West.

Western Business Roundtable

Read the Western Business Roundtable's letter to Department of the Interior Secretary Ken Salazar regarding the Department’s recent decision to pull 77 Bureau of Land Management (BLM) oil and gas leases in Utah, based upon the claim that insufficient consultation had occurred between the National Park Service (NPS) and the BLM prior to the regularly scheduled December 2008 sale. Read More...

Roundtable Applauds BLM and U.S. Forest Service For Implementation of Energy Corridors on Lands in 11 States

The Western Business Roundtable

The Western Business Roundtable applauds the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) for moving forward quickly in approving a Record of Decision formally amending 92 land use plans in support of the designation of more than 6,000 miles of energy transport corridors on federal lands in 11 Western states. Read More...

ESA Reform -- Roundtable Applauds DOI Finalization of ESA "Consultation" Rule

The Western Business Roundtable

The Western Business Roundtable has lauded the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service for finalizing a new rule to modernize the interagency consultation process under the Endangered Species Act (ESA).� Read More...

Public Lands Access -- Roundtable Supports BLM Push Back on House Committee "Emergency" Land Withdrawls

The Western Business Roundtable

The Roundtable supports a new rule by the Bureau of Land Management, which pushes back on efforts by the House Natural Resources Committee to insert itself into management decisions relative to energy and minerals development activities on federal lands. Read More...

Endangered Species Act -- Regulatory Reform Initiatives

Reform of the Endangered Species Act (ESA) has long been a dream for energy development interests hampered by its restrictive requirements and costly consequences. Prior to the 110th Congress, the Roundtable was a central player in efforts to achieve legislative reform of ESA. Of course, with the changing of the guard in Washington, we have adjusted our ESA priorities to other arenas. Read More...

National Environmental Policy Act -- The Roundtable Applauds DOI NEPA Improvements

During the past few years, the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) worked developing and implementing a list of regulatory reforms focused on making the current NEPA process work more efficiently. In the past year, federal agencies have slowly completed their part of this process. Read More...

Endangered Species Act -- Listings on Roundtable "Watch" LIst

2007 saw a shift in focus for the Roundtable on Endangered Species Act (ESA) issues. Whereas the previous few years we were able to focus primarily on regulatory and legislative reform initiatives, 2007 was dominated by a parade of listing petitions in the West. We are keeping our eye on a number of other looming threats related to ESA designations in the region. Many of these are clearly targeting energy development activities in the West.�Some of these are currently in litigation. Others we are watching for petition listing activities. The Roundtable specifically engaged on several specific petitions. Read More...

Minerals Security -- Roundtable Responded to Forest Service Hardrock Minerals Rulemaking

In March 2008, the U.S. Forest Service proposed amendments to its regulations governing hardrock mineral activities on National Forest lands. The purpose of the rulemaking was to implement the recommendations of the 1999 National Academy of Sciences/National Research Council’s study “Hardrock Mining on Federal Lands.” Read More...

Climate Change and ESA -- Roundtable Pans DOI ESA Polar Bear Decision as Dangerous Precedent “Unsupported” By Real Data

A major focus of our attention in 2007-08 has been to mount an aggressive push-back on efforts by national environmental groups to establish climate change as a trigger for listings of species under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The Alaska polar bear was the precedent-setting case.