The US Forest Service does not plan to issue a universal ban on horizontal drilling on federal land, allowing many national forests to remain available for natural gas production, the agency's deputy chief said Friday.
"I want to be clear, the US Forest has no policy, nor do we have any plans to develop any policy, to ban horizontal drilling and ... associated hydraulic fracturing," Forest Service Deputy Chief Joel Holtrop said Friday at a House of Representatives subcommittee hearing.
The joint-committee hearing, which the Natural Resources subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources and the Agriculture subcommittee on Conservation, Energy and Forestry convened, met to discuss the possibility of horizontal drilling in Virginia's George Washington National Forest.
The Forest Service is soliciting public comment on a draft proposal for the national forest that permits oil and gas leasing but prohibits horizontal drilling for the next 15 years in certain areas of the forest, a plan that prompted Republican lawmakers at the hearing to laud the importance of domestic energy production.
"In plain English, no fracturing and horizontal drilling means no natural gas or oil from shale and no energy security," said Representative Glenn Thompson, a Pennsylvania Republican and chairman of the Conservation, Energy and Forestry subcommittee.
Representative Tim Holden, a Pennsylvania Democrat, also extolled the importance of domestic energy production. Public land generated more than $112 billion in 2010, he said, noting the contribution of mineral resource management to that figure.
Holtrop acknowledged the extent to which federal forest land contributes to domestic energy production. National forests produced 194,000 Mcf of natural gas in 2010, along with 16.7 million barrels of oil, he said. He also assured lawmakers that the Forest Service only issuew horizontal drilling bans on a case-by-case basis.
"This plan is place-specific based on the particular circumstances of the GWNF, and does not represent a broader policy with regard to hydraulic fracturing," Holtrop said.
The Environmental Protection Agency is currently conducting a study on the effects of hydraulic fracturing, and the Department of Energy has received mixed input at public hearings--with some offering support for jobs that fracking can bring to economically depressed areas, while others complaining of its toxic effects on their health and the environment.
