Red Lodge Clearinghouse

Categorical exclusions allow an agency to forgo environmental analysis of a project, provided that the project is routine. Since being approved in the 2005 Energy Act, categorical exclusions have been used thousands of times in Utah, New Mexico and Wyoming, GAO officials said.

The groups argue the process is being used to sidestep environmental regulations, but agency officials say their usage is appropriate.

"We just follow the policy that's been established. I don't feel we've inappropriately used any categorical exclusions," said Mike Stiewig, a BLM field manager. "The larger question has to do with the policy issues, which are way above the chain from me. I don't make the rules, I just live by them."

The decision enraged one energy executive.

"You have a couple of congressmen that know little to nothing about oil and gas and even less about public land management ordering an investigation into categorical exclusions by an agency that knows less than nothing about oil and gas and public lands management," said Duane Zavadil, vice president for government affairs for Bill Barrett Corp., which is hoping to get approval by next year to drill 800 new wells near American Indian historical sites in Nine Mile Canyon (Paul Foy, AP/Houston Chronicle, Oct. 8). -- PR

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