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Department of Interior (DOI) Secretary Sally Jewell today received a letter from Congressman Rob Bishop (UT-01), Chairman of the House Natural Resources Public Lands and Environmental Regulation Subcommittee, requesting further information about the protocol and review process for the submission of official comments by the DOI and related agencies.

The letter stems from the recent discovery that the National Park Service used unsubstantiated data from a New York Times opinion piece in official comments made to the Bureau of Land Management.  In a September 05, 2013 letter to NPS Director Jon Jarvis, Congressman Bishop highlighted that the comments from the NPS to the BLM used the erroneous information to make a case against hydraulic fracturing. Congressman Bishop recently received a letter from Director Jarvis stating that the comments were made in error and would be withdrawn.  

Excerpts of the letter:

The NPS comments enabled the false narrative that hydraulic fracturing is not regulated and is unsafe.  On August 29, 2013, just six days after the NPS comments were filed, the Independent Petroleum Association of America outlined, in a letter to the NPS, the plethora of inaccuracies included in the NPS comments.  On September 6, 2013, I sent a letter to NPS Director Jarvis requesting the withdrawal of the comments because of the well-documented inaccuracies. 

It’s further troubling that the NPS lacks a system of data accountability and quality control.  Director Jarvis wrote in the November 13, 2013 letter: “I did not, nor did anyone from management, review the comments”.  This is very puzzling and raises further questions and concerns.

view the letter here