Barrasso Speech on the Wyoming Range

Mr. President, I come to the floor today to put into perspective some statements made by my good friend from Oklahoma, and he made those with regard to the Wyoming Range Withdrawal Act. This is a bill that I introduced.

I am especially pleased to be giving this speech from this desk. People back home in Wyoming ask about the desk and whose desk do you have? As you know, after the election and the new swearing in of Senators, some of the desks switched around. Due to the generosity of Senator Shelby--and I am very grateful to him--he has allowed me to have this desk because this is the desk of F.E. Warren, who was Wyoming's first Senator when we became a State in 1890. He took the oath of office, and he served for almost four decades. This is the desk he got when he came to the Senate on day one.

It is important to give this speech from this desk because we are talking about a part of Wyoming's past and a part of Wyoming's future that is very important, and it is the Wyoming range. Wyoming has a long history of getting it right when it comes to multiple use of the land. We have done it for 119 years that we have been a State, and we will continue to do it forever.

I am here to tell you and to tell the people of Wyoming, tell the people of America that I introduced this bill, the Wyoming Range Withdrawal Act, to fulfill a commitment I made to the people of Wyoming and to complete the work that was started by my good friend, Senator Craig Thomas. We lost Senator Thomas in 2007. At the time of his death, he was working on this bill. He had traveled the State. He had visited with people, listened to people. That is exactly what I did when I took the oath of office--having town meetings, traveling to all of the parts of the State, visiting, listening to people, and then working to try to improve the bill that is in front of us today as part of this lands package.

I am here to tell you that right now, today, there is oil and gas development going on in the Wyoming range. I have a picture of the Wyoming range, a beautiful part of western Wyoming. It means so much to so many people. There are certain places that are so special and so pristine that they need to be protected for future generations. But we do it right in Wyoming. We rely on multiple uses of the land.

This legislation we have heard about today seeks to protect from future oil and gas activity--let me say that again--from future oil and gas activity, lands in the Wyoming range that are not currently under lease. And there are lands in Wyoming that are currently under lease.

As we can see in this picture, it is still a very pristine, beautiful area, but some of this land is under lease for oil and gas development.

The legislation in this lands package does not--does not--affect areas that have been currently leased for exploration. There are 18 oil and gas leases within the proposed withdrawal area. These leases cover over 70,000 acres. These leases are primarily located in areas that have some of the most significant potential, the most significant potential for mineral development. They represent valid existing rights, and they will not be canceled in any way by this bill. I repeat: These leases represent valid existing property rights and will not be canceled by this bill.

In addition, there are 35 oil and gas leases covering almost 45,000 additional acres that have been issued and are under protest or have been sold but not yet issued. The legislation does not cancel any of these areas which are being contested. There does exist an appropriate administrative process whereby the Bureau of Land Management, the U.S. Forest Service is evaluating these contested leases to determine their status. I repeat: This legislation today does not cancel any of these currently contested leases. Everyone should keep in mind that the acres currently leased or currently leased but under protest represent the area where the most promising reserves exist. This bill does not touch that.

Now, my colleague from Oklahoma stated that the legislation would take off the table 8.8 trillion cubic feet of recoverable natural gas and over 300 million barrels of recoverable oil. Well, let us first set aside whether those figures are accurate, and we will get to that in a minute. I reiterate: The areas believed to hold the majority of the oil and gas reserves are leased, those areas are leased, and those are valid existing rights and will not be changed by this piece of legislation. Now, regarding the figures. I have an updated estimate, an estimate of the reserves of the Wyoming Range that has been prepared by the U.S. Department of Interior, the U.S. Geological Survey, and this was prepared on June 19, 2008. I have shared these numbers with Members of the Senate.

Under the revised estimates, the best minds, the best geological thinking, they believe there is some natural gas potential in this area of 1.5 trillion cubic feet, not 8.8, and an oil potential of 5 million barrels, not 300 million barrels.

Mr. President, these figures, particularly the estimated gas reserves, are still not a small amount, but they are significantly lower than the previously stated estimates and much smaller in size and in scope relative to other known gas reserves in the area of western Wyoming. Currently, in this area, there are 4,300 producing oil and gas wells in the three counties that are touched by this legislation. There is a proposal being considered for up to 4,339 additional wells that would not be affected by this legislation. There is production currently taking place in the Wyoming Range that will not be stopped by this legislation.

The people of Wyoming are doing their part to keep America's energy flowing. We in Wyoming are the largest net exporter of energy in the United States. We support development of our coal, of uranium, of oil, of gas, and of renewable resources--the electricity from wind. We have never been a State that has said: Not in my back yard. We are No. 1 in coal production in the country, we are No. 1 in uranium production in the country for nuclear power, and we are No. 2 in the country in production of onshore natural gas. The people of Wyoming continue to do their part.

We also recognize, through 119 years of statehood, that there must be a balance, a balance between helping the Nation meet its energy needs and maintaining the quality of life the people of Wyoming have come to enjoy. The Wyoming Range Withdrawal Act has bipartisan support throughout the State of Wyoming. The Governor of Wyoming, Governor Dave Freudenthal, a Democrat, came to Washington to testify at a hearing before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, and he spoke in favor of the bill. My colleague in the Senate, Senator Mike Enzi, is a cosponsor of the bill. It truly is a bipartisan measure.

The Wyoming Range Withdrawal Act strikes the proper balance. I have come to the Senate floor today to put this bill in context with what is occurring on the ground in Wyoming, as well as what is occurring under the ground. My goal is to provide an accurate and a complete picture for the Senate and, much more importantly, for the American people.

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