Note: “The really odd moment came when Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said in a statement that he was looking to the commission for information that could inform the administration’s position on halting deepwater drilling. Salazar’s statement stunned the commission’s two co-chairmen, William K. Reilly and Bob Graham, who said they had been assured by Salazar’s office and the White House… Read more »

Drug Cartel Activity Threatens Texas Water Supplies, Lawmaker Says June 21, 2010 FOXNews.com Joshua Rhett Miller Drug cartel activity along the Mexican border presents serious security threats to the area's water supply system, particularly on federally-owned lands in southern Texas, a U.S. lawmaker says. Members of the House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Water and Power held a… Read more »

Border Patrol Charged Millions for Habitat Damage, Republicans Say Enough 'Extortion' June 21, 2010 FOXNews.com Judson Berger Republican lawmakers are calling on the Interior Department to stop charging what they describe as "extortion" money from the Border Patrol -- millions of under-the-radar dollars meant to cover environmental damage stemming from their everyday duties along the… Read more »

Border Patrol Navigating Reams of Regulation to Secure Federal Land June 18, 2010 FOXNews.com Border Patrol agents must navigate a patchwork of environmental regulations dating back decades in order to police for drug cartels, smugglers and illegal immigrants -- often on foot-and-horseback in some of the most vulnerable areas of the southwest border. Border Patrol agents must… Read more »

Federal Regs on Environment May Be Hindering Border Security, Lawmakers Say FOXNews.com June 16, 2010 Federal environmental regulations that prevent border agents from expanded patrols of national wildlife parks appear to have had a hand in the government's decision to declare an 80-mile stretch of Arizona-Mexico border a virtual no-man's land. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has… Read more »

The Roughneck's Lament New York Times Rob Harris & Tom Zeller Jr. June 11, 2010 Click here to watch If President Obama's drilling moratorium lasts six months, many oil rigs will leave the Gulf of Mexico, probably for years, leaving workers in the local oil industry scared and frustrated. # # # Print version of this document Read more »

U.S. Closes Park Land Along Mexico Border to Americans FOX News June 15, 2010 Click here to watch Note:  To help address violence on federal lands along the border, House Republicans, led by National Parks, Forests and Public Lands Subcommittee Rob Bishop (UT-01), have introduced legislation (H.R. 5016) to ensure that the Department of Interior and Department of Agriculture do not… Read more »

Drilling Bits of Fiction Seven experts say the White House distorted their views 6/10/2010 Wall Street Journal Editorial The Obama Administration is under political pressure to reverse its ill-considered deep water drilling moratorium, and the latest blowback comes from seven angry experts from the National Academy of Engineering who say their views were distorted to justify the… Read more »

Birnbaum's game of telephone ends in firing Mike Soraghan E&E Daily May 28, 21010 Minerals Management Service Director Liz Birnbaum might have kept her job a little longer if she'd stayed in her office and kept her phone on the hook yesterday. Instead, she was forced to resign in a move that highlights the Obama administration's struggle to stay ahead of the Gulf of Mexico oil… Read more »

Signs Point to Administration Plan to Lock Up 13M Acres of Federal Land Brian Wilson FOX News May 27, 2010 Click here to watch A leaked partial document produced by the Bureau of Land Management and obtained by Fox News suggests the Obama administration is considering a plan to lock up 13 million acres of land -- and the Department of Interior is refusing to answer… Read more »