ANDREA FAIRFIELD

AUDREY STROM

OP-ED
NON-FEDERAL OIL AND GAS
RIGHTS WITHIN THE NATIONAL
PARK SYSTEM: GOVERN AWAY

Introduction
The National Park Services authority to govern the exercise of non-federal oil and gas

rights is at risk due to the introduction of House Joint Resolution 46 in January 2017. The bill

seeks to repeal updates implemented in 2016 by the Park Service after a seven year

process that were so desperately needed to accompany the improvements in technology

that have the potential to cause irreparable harm to the public land.
YES- the National Park Service DOES have the right to
govern the exercise of non-federal oil and gas rights.
We agree with the PRO side of our issue that, yes, the National Park Service (NPS)

absolutely has the right to govern the exercise of non-federal oil and gas rights. It is

essential that the NPS has control over private companies ability to drill as well as the

authority to hold companies accountable to clean up after themselves. After all, why else

would the NPS exist? The oil and gas companies have one idea in mind: oil and gas

production. While certain companies may have some degree of environmental integrity it is

simply the nature of the business to make a great sum of money and create a lot of jobs

quickly, with little to no consideration of future environmental impact. If House Joint

Resolution 46 is passed through Congress repealing the updates that the NPS worked so

hard to implement, 60% of System units (national parks) will once again become exempt

from the Park Services jurisdiction. The NPS will be barred from the right to govern private

companies actions within their own park. Additionally, 40 more national parks that are not

currently open for drilling but have split-estate land within them will become open to

drilling. Rep. Senator Paul Gosar of Arizona, the man who proposed H.J. Res 46, stated that

the federal government has no right to impose job-killing regulations for private and state-

owned oil and natural gas wellsthese private and state-controlled operations will continue

under the same environmental regulations that have worked well for the past 38 years

(McKnight, 2017). It is true that private property rights are a bedrock principle of America,

but there must come a point in which the private company is responsible for the potential

damages they will cause to all who inhabit our home planet Earth.

The fact of the matter is that the regulations have not worked well for the past 38 years,

hence, the updates to the rules. Here is a brief history of oil spills in the last few decades,

obtained from the International Tanker Owners Pollution Federation Limited (ITOPF 2016):

In the 1990s there were 358 spills of 7 tonnes and over, resulting in 1,133,000 tonnes

of oil lost; 73% of this amount was spilt in just 10 incidents.

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 In the 2000s there were 181 spills of 7 tonnes and over, resulting in 196,000 tonnes of

oil lost; 75% of this amount was spilt in just 10 incidents.

In the seven year period 2010-2016 there have been 47 spills of 7 tonnes and over,

resulting in 39,000 tonnes of oil lost; 83% of this amount was spilt in just 10 incidents.

Many right-winged viewpoints specifically regarding the matter seem to be so ill-informed

and money-hungry it is upsetting. The amount of times Rep. Gosar refers to the midnight

rules passed by the Obama administration strikes us as odd because if he has been

involved in the political arena enough to address a choice made by Obama and his cabinet,

shouldnt he know that the updates have been being drafted since he first took office in

2009? For thirty seven years we have waited for the NPS to have the proper authority over

companies who wish to extract a substance from the land and at last we have achieved

success, only to have it taken away by the Trump administration. As a country we cannot

allow Big Oil to have a negative impact on our quality of life simply because they want to

drill where weve never drilled before. We must put our trust in the hands of the National

Park Service, a department dedicated to the preservation of our home.

Oil Tanker Spill Statistics 2016. (2016). The International Tanker Owners Pollution

Federation Limited - ITOPF. (n.d.). Retrieved April 20, 2017, from

http://www.itopf.com/knowledge-resources/data-statistics/statistics/

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McKnight, T. (2017). Congressman who introduced national parks drilling bill got $250K

from Big Energy. (2017, February 3). Retrieved from http://fox6now.com/2017/02/03/the-

rep-who-introduced-national-parks-drilling-bill-got-250k-from-big-energy-tmwsp/