US House of Representatives panel cuts BLM funding by $4-mil
Washington (Platts)--5May2005
A US House of Representatives appropriations panel slashed the Bush administration's request for fiscal year 2006 funding for the Bureau of Land Management by $4-mil late Wednesday. A press release on the committee's web site did not explain why the subcommittee on interior, environment and related agencies cut the administration's proposal for BLM to $1.8-bil, and a staffer with the subcommittee did not return a call for comment. But the administration has been criticized by congressional appropriators and authorizers for its proposal to reduce its backlog of drilling permits to 120 by the end of 2006 from nearly 1,700 in March through the collection of $9-mil in permit fees from oil and natural gas operators. Sen Craig Thomas (Republican-Wyoming) said in a March Energy and Natural Resources oversight hearing on the budget request that it was "strange" for BLM to propose charging producers for "administrative costs." The administration's FY-06 proposal for the Forest Service, whose budget also falls within the interior bill, includes $1.7-mil for reducing the agency's backlog of drilling permit applications. The subcommittee raised the forest agency's budget to $4.2-bil, $182-mil above the administration request. This story was originally published in Platts Global Alert http://www.globalalert.platts.com
Copyright © 2005 - Platts
Please visit: www.platts.com
Their coverage of energy matters is extensive!!.