Neglected Vows Cited At BLM

Critics of the BLM said that the leaked document is not much of a revelation -- except in the agency's willingness to put its failures on paper.

"The facts are no surprise whatsoever," said Bruce Pendery, a program director of the Wyoming Outdoor Council, an environmental group based in Lander, Wyo. "What is new is that, instead of us grumbling about the BLM not doing what it said it would do, the agency itself is acknowledging that this is the case."

Many national environmental groups have complained about the BLM's accelerating pace in issuing new drilling permits. Executives with oil and gas companies say the industry cannot keep up with the permits already issued. In the past two years, the BLM issued a record 13,070 drilling permits on federal land, but the industry drilled just 5,844 wells.

"While the leaked report shines light on the agency's failure in one specific place, we fear that it is emblematic of its handling of energy leasing and development throughout the West," said James D. Range, chairman of the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, a Washington-based group focused on the protection of hunting and fishing on public land.

Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne, who toured the Pinedale gas fields last week, told local reporters he was "impressed" with how companies there were working in a way that is "compatible with the environment."

But state officials in Wyoming have been complaining for years about how demands from Washington to speed up drilling is hurting the state's wildlife and causing long-term environmental damage.

The state's planning coordinator, Mary Flanderka, said BLM field offices in Wyoming are under extraordinary pressure to honor environmental commitments while, at the same time, dealing with orders from Washington to rush forward on energy extraction.

"There is not enough money or manpower to get the job done," she said.