BLM Gets Called Out By Internal Investigation

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is known by anyone who has any experience with environmental law, to be an agency of industry (mainly oil, gas, and mining) and not really an agency of the government. It is supposed to protect and preserve the lands owned by the American people while also putting it to productive uses.

Well, it puts the lands to productive use... but only in order to make industry a lot of money at the expense of the taxpayer. Industry can get drilling and mining rights for pennies on the dollar compared to what would be paid to a private land owner.

Now, the BLM is not even monitoring the oil & gas industry as it promised to do to get around the fact that they are not protecting and preserving the land as is in there mandate.

Neglected Vows Cited At BLM
By Blaine Harden
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, September 1, 2006; Page A03

The Bureau of Land Management has neglected its public commitments to monitor and limit harm to wildlife and air quality from natural gas drilling in western Wyoming, according to an internal BLM assessment.

In the Pinedale, Wyo., field office of the BLM, which oversees one of the most productive and profitable gas fields on public land in the West, there is often "no evaluation, analysis or compiling" of data tracking the environmental consequences of drilling, according to the document, which was written in May and which BLM officials confirm is genuine.

(Full Story)