The Departmentof the Interior announced a plan to provide more relief and flexibility to ranchers whose livestock grazes on public lands, while the Departmentof the Transportation is working with state governments to provide emergency waivers of federal truck weight regulations and hours of service requirements to drought-stricken communities.
As part of that response, the U.S. Departmentof Agriculture today announced that it will provide millions of dollars in assistance to restore livestock lands affected by the drought.
He decided to segregate 1 million acres of federal lands in Arizona while the Department evaluates whether new mining claims should be allowed on these lands.
The Departmentof Interior which controls permits for drilling on federal onshore lands and the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) is also exerting a big influence upon fracking operations.
The Departmentof the Interior has provided additional grazing flexibility on federal lands and the Small Business Administration is working to help with access to investment capital and credit in affected communities.
The Republican program would require the Interior Department to move forward in order to free up leasing and development of drilling on public lands onshore.
Bush said he would instruct the Energy Department to identify other federal lands that could be opened to exploration, support construction of new pipelines, expand refining capacity by tearing down "regulatory hurdles, " and commit billions to clean coal technology and hydroelectric power.