[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 64 (Thursday, May 1, 2003)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5675-S5676]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. BAUCUS:
  S. 984. A bill to direct the Secretary of the Interior to evaluate 
opportunities to enhance domestic oil and gas

[[Page S5676]]

production through the exchange of nonproducing Federal oil and gas 
leases located in the Lewis and Clark National Forest, in the Flathead 
National Forest, and on Bureau of Land Management land in the State of 
Montana, and for other purposes; to the Committee on Energy and Natural 
Resources.
  Mr. BAUCUS. Mr. President, I am introducing a bill today that I hope 
will take us one step closer to achieving permanent protections for 
Montana's magnificent Rocky Mountain Front.
  The Front, as we call it back home, is part of one of the largest and 
most intact wild places left in the lower 48. To the North, the Front 
includes a 200 square mile area known as the Badger-Two Medicine in the 
Lewis and Clark National Forest. This area sits just south-east of 
Glacier National Park, one of our greatest national treasures. The 
Badger-Two Medicine area is sacred ground to the Blackfeet Tribe. In 
January of 2002, portions of the Badger-Two, known as the Badger-Two 
Medicine Blackfoot Traditional Cultural District, were declared 
eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places.
  South of the Badger-Two, the Front includes a 400 square mile strip 
of national forest land and about 20 square miles of BLM lands, 
including three BLM Outstanding Natural Areas.
  Not only does the Front still retain almost all its native species, 
but it also harbors the country's largest bighorn sheep herd and second 
largest elk herd. The Rocky Mountain Front supports one of the largest 
populations of grizzly bears south of Canada and is the only place in 
the lower 48 states where grizzly bears still roam from the mountains 
to their historic range on the plains.
  Because of this exceptional habitat, the Front offers world renowned 
hunting, fishing and recreational opportunities. Sportsmen, local land 
owners, hikers, local communities and many other Montanans have worked 
for decades to protect and preserve the Front for future generations.
  In short, a majority of Montanans feel very strongly that oil and gas 
development, and Montana's Rocky Mountain Front, just don't mix. The 
habitat is too rich, the landscape too important, to subject it to the 
roads, drills, pipelines, industrial equipment, chemicals, noise and 
human activity that come with oil and gas development.
  Building upon a significant public and private conservation 
investment and following an extensive public comment process, the Lewis 
and Clark National Forest decided in 1997 to withdraw for 15 years 
356,000 acres in the Front from any new oil and gas leasing. This was a 
significant first step in protecting the Front from development that I 
wholeheartedly supported.
  However, in many parts of the Rocky Mountain Front, oil and gas 
leases exist that pre-date the 1997 decision or are located in the 
Badger-Two Medicine area, where the lease suspension could be lifted 
soon. These leaseholders have invested time and resources in acquiring 
their leases. Several leaseholders have applied to the federal 
government for permits to drill. These leases are the subject of my 
proposed bill.
  History has shown that energy exploration and development in the 
Front is likely to result in expensive and time-consuming environmental 
studies and litigation. This process rarely ends with a solution that 
is satisfactory to the oil and gas lessee. For example, in the late 
1980's both Chevron and Fina applied for permits to drill in the Badger 
Two Medicine portion of the Front.
  After millions of dollars spent on studies and years of public 
debate, Chevron abandoned or assigned all of its lease rights, and Fina 
sold its lease rights back to the original owner.
  Therefore, I think we should be fair to those leaseholders. We want 
them to continue to provide for our domestic oil and gas needs, but 
they are going to have a long, difficult and expensive road if they 
wish to develop oil and gas in the Rocky Mountain Front.
  My legislation would direct the Interior Department to evaluate non-
producing leases in the Rocky Mountain Front and look at opportunities 
to cancel those leases, in exchange for allowing leaseholders to 
explore for oil and gas somewhere else, namely in the Gulf of Mexico or 
in the State of Montana. In conducting this evaluation, the Secretary 
would have to consult with leaseholders, with the State of Montana, the 
public and other interested parties.
  When Interior concludes this study in two years, the bill calls for 
the agency to make recommendations to Congress and the Energy and 
Natural Resources Committee on the advisability of pursuing lease 
exchanges in the Front and any changes in law and regulation needed to 
enable the Secretary to undertake such an exchange.
  Finally, in order to allow the Secretary to conduct this study, my 
bill would continue the current lease suspension in the Badger-Two 
Medicine Area for three more years. This lease suspension would only 
apply to the Badger-Two Medicine Area, not the entire Front.
  That's it, that's all my bill does. It doesn't predetermine any 
outcome, it doesn't impact any existing exploration activities or 
environmental processes. It just creates a process through which the 
federal government, the people of Montana and leaseholders can finally 
have a real, open and honest discussion about the fate of the Rocky 
Mountain Front.
  I would also point out that the Administration recently completed an 
inventory of the onshore oil and gas reserves on federal lands in five 
basins in the Interior West, including the Rocky Mountain Front, also 
known as the Montana Thrust Belt. The Administration's study found that 
this area contains the smallest volumes of oil and gas resources of all 
five of the Western inventory areas. For example, the mean estimate of 
all natural gas reserves in the Uinta/Pinceance Basin in Colorado and 
Utah is 22 trillion cubic feet. In the Front, the mean estimate is only 
8.6 trillion cubic feet.
  Additionally, the study concluded that in reality, the vast majority 
of Federal lands in the interior West are available for leasing with 
few if any restrictions. Although a large percentage of federal lands 
in the Front are currently unavailable for leasing, many of those lands 
are unavailable because they lie under Glacier National Park, Indian 
lands, and already established wilderness areas, which comprise much of 
the Federal land in the Front. So, not only is the Front relatively 
poor in terms of oil and gas reserves, many of those reserves--by 
Congressional mandate, executive order or treaty--will never be 
available for leasing.
  We should look for ways to fairly compensate leaseholders for 
investments they've made in their leases if they decide to leave the 
Front rather than waste years and millions fighting to explore for 
uncertain--and small--oil and gas reserves. A lot of Montanans just 
don't want to see the Front developed, and they will fight to protect 
it. Including me.

  So, developers can wait years, or decades, or most likely never, for 
oil and gas to flow from the Front. Or we can look at ways to encourage 
domestic production much sooner, in much more cost effective, 
appropriate and efficient ways somewhere else.
  That is what I hope this legislation will accomplish Mr. President, 
and I hope my colleagues in the Senate will support it.
                                 ______