The U.S. House of Representatives passed a comprehensive energy bill on July 30 that includes full and dedicated funding for the Land and Water Conservation Fund, reports the Wildlife Management Institute. The Consolidated Land, Energy, and Aquatic Resources (CLEAR) Act of 2010, H.R. 3534, which includes provisions from the Oil Spill Accountability and Environmental Protection Act (H.R. 5629), is intended to address safety and liability issues revealed by the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. In addition, the bill includes onshore drilling reforms, abolishes the Minerals Management Service and creates three separate bureaus to manage oil and gas leasing and safety, and provides for restoration of the Gulf of Mexico.

Both the House and Senate bills include dedicated funding for the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF), the federal funding program that targets revenues from offshore oil and gas development for the conservation of our natural, historical and recreational resources. The LWCF is supposed to receive $900 million per year but revenues are typically diverted to other purposes in the federal budget process; in 2007, for example, only $138 million was allocated.

"The Land and Water Conservation Fund has helped protect many of America's most famous and popular parks, forests and seashores, and has helped conserve working farms and ranches that are so important to our country's way of life," said Mark Tercek, president and CEO of The Nature Conservancy. "Despite its success, however, the LWCF has never been given the full funding envisioned by its creators. In the coming weeks, Congress is poised to take a historic step forward in our nation's conservation history by fully funding the LWCF."

The House-passed CLEAR Act includes a new $2 per barrel fee to fund the LWCF as well as the Historic Preservation Fund and a new Ocean Resources Conservation and Assistance Fund. The latter will provide grants to coastal states for the protection, maintenance and restoration of ocean, coastal and Great Lakes ecosystems. The onshore drilling reforms eliminate "categorical exclusions" in the permitting process and repeal exemptions from Clean Water Act protections during construction of oil and gas drilling pads.

The safety provisions of the CLEAR Act require strong new standards for offshore drilling, including independent certifications of critical equipment, demonstrations of ability to respond to future blowouts or major spills, increased inspections, stiffer penalties for safety violations, and an end to the practice of issuing environmental waivers for drilling plans, according to a House Natural Resources Committee statement. The bill also ensures that all drilling rigs off U.S. coasts adhere to these safety requirements, and it creates new ethical standards for federal oil and gas inspectors.

"We need professional, highly trained safety inspectors who aren't just pushing paper and rubberstamping in a matter of minutes what the industry tells them, but, rather, are out there asking the tough questions and are truly holding these oil companies accountable for their actions," said Resources Committee Chairman Nick J. Rahall (D-WV).

As part of the reforms, the bill will codify recent Department of the Interior (DOI) changes that abolishes the Minerals Management Service and creates three separate bureaus. The new Bureau of Energy and Resource Management will handle the leasing and permitting for onshore and offshore energy leasing on Federal lands. The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement will be responsible for all safety and environmental regulatory activities, including inspections on all onshore and offshore leases. Finally, the Office of Natural Resources Revenue will collect and disburse all royalties and revenues from energy and mineral development. In addition, the DOI will be required to certify adherence to new ethics guidelines and provide training to ensure these guidelines are being met.

"While we may not know the exact cause of the incident, we clearly know what contributed to it. A culture of cozy relationships that had regulators interviewing for jobs on the same rigs they were supposed to be inspecting. A trust-but-don't-verify attitude toward safety standards. And an agency that was asleep at the switch, spending too much time on the sidelines as the oil and gas industry wrote its own rules," said Rahall. "The CLEAR Act will dismantle and reorganize the dysfunctional Minerals Management Service so that the conflicts of interest between the leasing, policing, and revenue collecting are permanently abolished."

The U.S. Senate was unable to consider a similar bill, the Clean Energy Jobs and Oil Company Accountability Act (S. 3663), before adjourning for the August district work period but is expected to take it up in September. (jas)