Lucian Pugliaresi, writing in an opinion piece in today's Wall Street Journal, pointed to the success of shale gas production in Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Virginia, West Virginia, Pennsylvania and North Dakota with the question: What do these states all have in common besides interesting geology? Their federal land holdings are extremely small and mineral rights are in private hands.
Pugliaresi, President of the Energy Policy Research Foundation, contrasted that success with reserves on the enormous landholdings of the federal government that are subject to "endless" federal environmental reviews, congressional oversight, and permitting delays. Using Shell's experience in Alaska as an example, Pugliaresi called for the federal government to make more land available and minimize the regulatory burden on companies to realize America's oil and gas potential.
Pugliaresi will be speaking in Alaska on April 20, 2012 as part of Northrim Bank's Oil and Gas Speaker Series, in partnership with the Alaska World Affairs Council.
Comments
You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post.