Jewell Promises ‘Balance’

From Deseret News today.

Interior Secretary nominee Sally Jewell said she would embrace a balanced approach to energy development on the nation’s public lands, assuring Western states’ senators that oil and gas will be a part of the mix.

And this will be of interest to those who live and recreate in Southern Utah.

Sally Jewell (Photo credit: Burke Museum)

Jewell, a former petroleum engineer, told committee members she had “fracked” a natural gas well during her work in the field and committed that the federal government would be open to a “states’ first” approach on rules governing hydraulic fracturing of oil and gas from the ground.

When pressed by a senator if she would move the country away from fossil fuel development and to renewables and sustainable energy, Jewell simply said she favored an “all of the above” strategy promoted by President Barack Obama.

She also assured Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, that she and the Obama administration would not pursue new monument designations without local input — something that has stung particularly in Utah with the 1996 creation of the Grand Staircase-Escalante Monument by then-President Bill Clinton.

“We will get multiple stakeholders around the table to discuss the monument designation question,” should that become an issue in a particular state, she said.

It was plain the senators peppering Jewell with questions all have had pressing issues in their home states stemming from the management practices at the U.S. Department of the Interior — and few of them good.

Time will tell…

Read the article HERE

Related articles

• Utah’s public land issues will demand Jewell’s attention (sagebrushcoalition.com)
• Rep. Rob Bishop Statement on the Jewell Nomination (sagebrushcoalition.com)
• Sally Jewell pledges balanced approach on energy (seattletimes.com)
• Senator Mike Lee Statement on the Sally Jewell Nomination (sagebrushcoalition.com)