BILLINGS – Montana’s Congressman, Denny Rehberg, today released the following statement after the Bureau of Land Management released its environmental assessments for federal oil and gas leases in three states.

“The issue here isn’t that the BLM finally admitted it had no justification for the unilateral delay of energy development in Montana, it’s that they bypassed Congress and the people of Montana to impose these unnecessary and economically destructive climate change policies.  It’s time for the federal government to get out of the way of domestic energy production that will lower costs for consumers and create much needed jobs.  That’s why it’s so important to pass the LEASE Act and prevent this from happening in the future.”

Earlier this year, BLM settled a lawsuit filed by several well-funded special interest groups to suspend 61 oil and gas lease sales in Montana, North Dakota and South Dakota.  The lawsuit alleged that BLM did not analyze the impacts of climate change as would be required by Secretarial Order 3226, which was issued by Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt in the final days of the Clinton Administration.  BLM also postponed all of its upcoming 2010 lease sales after Interior Secretary Ken Salazar decided to incorporate climate change evaluation into all decision-making at the Department of Interior (DOI).  These regulatory decisions were made without consulting Congress.

An economic analysis by Montana State University Billings concluded that oil and gas development has a total impact of more than $8.6 billion in Montana and supports more than 12,000 jobs.  A similar study undertaken by PricewaterhouseCoopers found that the total direct impact of the oil and gas industry in South Dakota accounts for more than 8,000 jobs.  These delays disproportionately affect independent producers, who supply 68 percent of American oil and 82 percent of American natural gas.

Rehberg and Congresswoman Stephanie Herseth Sandlin (SD-AL) joined forces earlier this year in introducing the bipartisan Limit Executive Actions Suspending Energy (LEASE) Act of 2010.  This legislation prevents the head of federal agencies from taking administrative actions to regulate greenhouse gas emissions without express statutory authorization from Congress.  Prohibited actions include issuing secretarial orders or regulations and monitoring, mitigating, predicting or documenting so-called greenhouse gas emissions.