This seems like a great place to drill for oil! Photo: Tracy Zhang
Emboldened by Trump’s confrontational relationship with the EPA and the Department of the Interior, Congress considers easing rules on drilling in national parks. Currently, there are 40 national parks in which the government manages all the beautiful things we enjoy above the ground, but not the mineral rights to the riches in the soil. Representative Paul A. Gosar, of Arizona, argues that companies should be able to access those resources regardless of the park status above. And with the current political climate, he may get his wish.
The National Parks have a set of regulations that govern the management of mineral rights to the resources existing within park boundaries. And they address a variety of things from abandoned mining claims to drilling for oil. Currently, if you wanted to drill for oil within a national park, you had to comply with 9B rules. These rules were created in 1978 and require that one request permission from the national parks to conduct for-profit drilling endeavors on public land. Applications must include a Plan of Operations and an agreement that the parks will enforce safety regulations. Rep. Gosar introduced HJ Res. 46 to roll back these 38-year-old regulations and pave the way for easier access to drilling. If the resolution succeeds, it could act as a precedent to prevent other agencies from securing similar rules in the future.
Nicholas Lund, of National Parks Conservation Association, states: “These challenges are direct attacks on America’s national parks. Each of these rules provides the commonsense protections for national parks that millions of Americans demand. If the Park Service’s drilling rules are repealed, national parks across the country would be subjected to poorly regulated oil and gas drilling, threatening parks’ air, water and wildlife.”
