Days Before Casselton Oil Train Explosion, Obama Signed Bill Hastening Fracking Permits on ND Public Lands

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On December 20, both chambers of the U.S. Congress passed a little-noticed bill to expedite permitting for hydraulic fracturing (โ€œfrackingโ€) on public lands in the Bakken Shale basin, located predominantly in North Dakota. And on December 26, President Obama signed the bill into law.ย 

Days later, on December 30, a Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF)ย freight train owned by Warren Buffett carrying Bakken fracked oil exploded in Casselton, North Dakota.ย Locals breathed a smoky sigh of relief that the disaster happened outside the town center. In July 2013, a โ€œbomb trainโ€ carrying Bakken oil exploded in Lac-Mรฉgantic, Quebec, killing 47 people.ย 

Dubbed the โ€œBureau of Land Management (BLM) Streamlining Act,โ€ the bill passed unanimously in the Senateย as S.244ย and 415-1 in the Houseย asย H.R. 767, with Rep. Justin Amash (R-MI) serving as the sole โ€œnayโ€ vote and 16 representatives abstaining. Among the abstentions were representatives Peter Defazio (D-OR), Henry Waxman (D-CA) and John Campbell (R-CA).

H.R. 767’s sponsor is North Dakota Republican Rep. Kevin Cramer, who received $213,150 from the oil and gas industryย prior to the 2012 election, and an additionalย $29,000ย for the forthcoming 2014ย elections.

Cosponsors includeย Wyoming Republican Rep. Cynthia Lummis ($109,050 from the oil and gas industryย pre-2012 election,ย $28,500 in the 2014 election cycle), South Dakota Republican Rep. Kristi Noem ($95,501ย from the industry pre-2012 election,ย $20,400 pre-2014)ย andย Montana Republican Rep. Steve Daines ($124,620 pre-2012 election and $87,412 pre-2014).

S.244 is sponsored by Sen. John Hoeven (R-ND), who has takenย $291,237 from the oil and gas industry since his 2010 election to Congress. Cosponsor Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND)ย received $111,050 from the oil and gas industry since her 2012 electoralย victory.


U.S. Sen. John Hoeven; Photo Credit: Wikimediaย Commons

Sen. Hoeven visited BNSF‘s Fort Worth, Texas, corporate headquarters on January 3 to meet with the company’s CEO, Matt Rose, โ€œto get an update on the Casselton derailment and measures that can be taken to enhance railroadย safety.โ€ย 

โ€œWhile itโ€™s a blessing that no one was hurt in this accident, we must now work with the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), industry and leaders on all levels to get to the root cause of this weekโ€™s derailment,โ€ Hoeven said in a press statement, not mentioning the bill he sponsored will create additional oil-by-railย markets.ย 

โ€œWe also need to rigorously review ways that shipping petroleum products by rail can be improved forย safety.โ€

Energy Policy Act of 2005ย Amendment

The BLM Streamlining Act passed into law by the Obama administration is actually an amendment to Section 365 of the Bush-era 2005 Energy Policy Act. Itย creates offices in North Dakota and Montana to rubber stamp fracking permits on public lands in those states.ย ย ย 

Section 365 created a โ€œPilot Project to Improve Federal Permit Coordinationโ€ on public lands โ€œto improve coordination of oil and gas permittingโ€ฆas a means of meeting the Nation’s need for dependable, affordable, environmentally responsible energy,โ€ explains the BLM website.

This compelledย BLM to set up field offices to more efficiently fast track oil and gas drilling permitsย in Rawlins and Buffalo, Wyoming; Miles City, Montana; Farmington and Carlsbad, New Mexico; Grand Junction/Glenwood Springs, Colorado; and Vernal,ย Utah.

Left out of the original Section 365: North Dakota, the new darling of the U.S. domestic oil fracking scene. The BLM Streamlining Act โ€œ[r]eplaces the Miles City, Montana field office with the Montana/Dakotas State Office,โ€ creating an open season for fracking North Dakota’s publicย lands.


Halliburton Headquarters; Photo Credit: Wikimediaย Commons

The Energy Policy Act of 2005 is perhaps most famous for the โ€œHalliburton Loophole,โ€ which exempted the fracking industry from the legal dictates of the Safe Drinking Water Act and other laws. The loophole also made the chemicals contained in โ€œfracking fluidโ€ a trade secret, meaning the industry doesn’t have to disclose the recipe of chemicals injected into the ground in frackingย operations.

Obama Executive Order: Fast-Track Bakkenย Permits

In March 2012, President Obama issued Executive Order 13604,ย lending an explanation to his signing off on the BLM Streamliningย Act.

Obama announced the Order while standing in front of the sections of pipe that would soon become the southern half of TransCanada’sย Keystone XL pipeline (now rebranded the โ€œGulf Coast Pipelineโ€) in Cushing, Oklahoma (the โ€œpipeline crossroads of the worldโ€) โ€” a pipeline that will be fast-tracked by theย Order.


President Obama in Cushing; Photo Credit: Whiteย House

But it did much more than that, calling on the federal government to โ€œsignificantly reduce the aggregate time required to make decisions in the permitting and review of infrastructureย projects.โ€

โ€œThe quality of our Nation’s infrastructure dependsโ€ฆon Federal permitting and review processes, including planning, aproval and consultation processes,โ€ explains the Obama Order. โ€œ[I]t is critical that executive departments and agencies take all steps within their authorityโ€ฆto execute Federal permitting and review processes with maximum efficiency andย effectiveness.โ€ย 

Another key piece of that Order: creation of the Bakken Federal Executive Group.

The Group was created to find โ€œways to facilitate the development of oil and gas resources in the booming Bakken Formation,โ€ according toย Petroleum News Bakken.

โ€œInterior continues to be a leader in implementing President Obamaโ€™s vision for a federal permitting process that is smarter [and] more efficient,โ€ David Hayes, Department of Interior Deputy Secretary said in a June press releaseย on theย Bakken Federal Executive Group. โ€œBy coordinating across the many federal agencies involved in the Bakken regionโ€ฆwe are able to offer a better process forย industry.โ€

Just over a year later in May 2013, Obama issued a related follow-up memorandum to the Executive Order, calling for permitting time of major infrastructure projects to be cut in half.

โ€œRather Benign Billโ€ฆRather Majorย Ramificationsโ€

Speaking on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives in May 2013, Cramer โ€” sponsor of the House version of the billย โ€”ย referred to the BLM Streamlining Act as a โ€œrather benign bill with rather major ramifications.โ€

Cramer also referred to North Dakota as the โ€œperfect laboratoryโ€ for streamlining of permits on public lands, saying โ€œthe North Dakota experiment will be one people look back on and say ‘That’s the way to do it, that’s the right way to doย it.’โ€

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Steve Horn is the owner of the consultancy Horn Communications & Research Services, which provides public relations, content writing, and investigative research work products to a wide range of nonprofit and for-profit clients across the world. He is an investigative reporter on the climate beat for over a decade and former Research Fellow for DeSmog.

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