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U.S. Department of Interior (DOI) Secretary Ken Salazar appeared before the House Natural Resources Committee today to address questions regarding the Interior’s portion of the President’s FY2013 budget. 

Congressman Rob Bishop (R-UT), Chairman of the House Natural Resources National Parks, Forests and Public Lands Subcommittee, asked Secretary Salazar questions pertaining to the following issues:

1.      On January 26^th the DOI published a notice in the Federal Register that the BLM will begin charging a $10 overnight camping fee within the North Fruita Desert Special Recreation Management Area, which is located in the State of Colorado.  This has caused some concern and raised some objections, and begs the question that if campers were to object to the fee, and “occupy” the campground as they did on the federally managed McPherson Square park in Washington, D.C., would they be allowed to stay for months without paying the fee?

2.      President Obama plans to impose a new tax on ranchers.  The new “fee” or tax would be in addition to the grazing fee, which is currently $1.35 per Animal Unit Month (AUM).  There are concerns that the DOI will circumvent the necessary congressional process and impose the new tax by administrative fiat. 

3.      The DOI has illustrated that they do not believe the U.S. currently has oil shale technologies that can responsibly develop our oil shale resources.  The recently released draft Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS) includes areas designated as preferential leased lands that will now be off limits to commercial leasing in Utah.  The DOI has also made it clear that it could be very difficult to comply with the terms of the RD&D leases in order to receive commercial leases for greater acreage.

4.      Recently, the National Landscape Conservation System (NLCS) was elevated to the level of “directorate.”  Congressman Bishop asked if this would add a new supervisory authority to NLCS.  There is concern that the NLCS is a redundant component of the Bureau of Land Management, adding another layer of bureaucratic management to lands already under the jurisdiction of the BLM.

5.      On Feb. 6, 2012, BLM issued a notice in the Federal Register affecting 2.4 million acres of public land in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming.  The BLM decided to take a “fresh look” at land-use plans in the aforementioned states dealing with oil shale and tar sands leases.  Even though this announcement deals with energy-related leases, the BLM will consider “wilderness characteristics” in determining any future disposition of public lands in the affected areas.  “Wilderness characteristics” was the definition of the DOI’s “Wild Lands” policy.  There is concern that the DOI may plan to resurrect the “Wild Lands” policy next year.

Click here to watch the full Q&A