“If this provision became law, it could literally lead to the privatization of millions of acres of public land, including national park and national forest land.”
“If you look at the actual facts on the ground, they have thousands of more drilling permits in their pockets than they can even drill on. So why is Congress or the administration always looking for ways to exempt the wealthiest companies in the world from their environmental responsibilities?”
“They have to have a fairly recent analysis of the impacts before they can apply these categorical exclusions. If they're planning to improperly apply these exemptions ... in places where there are old land use plans that are out of date, then they are asking for legal trouble.”
“When Western residents wake up to the fact that the Bush administration has a ... scheme to divest the public of its lands, I don't think people are going to like that very much.”
