Mr. Erik Milito - The House Committee on Natural Resources ...

industry’s development costs through higher taxes, higher royalty rates, higher
minimum lease bids, and overlays of new regulations.
<strong>The</strong> administration likes to point out that oil production is up nationwide,
but it is claiming credit for production gains taking place on private and state
lands within which the federal government does not have control over leasing,
permitting and regulation of operations. In the areas where the federal
government is in control, oil production is down 7.9 percent when comparing
2011 to 2009 and natural gas production is down 14.7 percent over the same
period. It is important to keep in mind that BLM-managed lands in the Rockies
have historically been a strong producer of natural gas for the nation, yet we are a
seeing a lag in production. And over the same period, natural gas production
increased by 21 percent on nonfederal lands.
In his recently released book “<strong>The</strong> Quest”, the Pulitzer-prize winning
historian Daniel Yergin points out that “[p]olicies related to access to energy and
its production can have major impact on the timeliness of investment and the
availability of supply – and thus on energy security.” With the right policies and
right leadership, we could be doing far better in developing our own energy and
bolstering America’s economic and energy security. <strong>The</strong> results could be
astounding. Within 15 years, American and Canadian energy supplies could
provide 100 percent of U.S. liquid fuel needs with increased biofuels development
and the implementation of four straightforward policies:
• Providing access to U.S. oil and natural gas reserves that are currently offlimits;
• Returning the Gulf of Mexico permitting rates to premoratorium levels, at
a minimum;
• Resisting calls for imposition of unnecessary new regulatory requirements
on oil and natural gas development; and
• Partnering with Canada to develop new pipeline capacity to export
Canadian crude to the United States, including approval of the Keystone XL
pipeline.
7