Remarks Prepared for Delivery
The Honorable Gale Norton, Secretary of the Interior
Rocky Mountain Natural Gas Strategy Conference
August 7, 2001, Denver, Co.

Good afternoon. It's good to be outside the Washington Beltway. Better yet, it's great to be back home in Colorado.

At the Interior Department, we take our responsibility to protect the natural resources of this country very seriously. And I want the best people on my leadership team.

That is why I'm announcing today that one of Colorado's own, Kit Kimball, as agreed to serve as my Director of Intergovernmental and External Affairs. Kit is with us today. Kit, please stand up.

Many of you know Kit from her work as executive director of the Western Regional Council.

We are fortunate to have Kit take on new responsibilities and the challenges. I can tell you Kit is a great negotiator. In fact, she negotiated to remain in Denver while working for the Department. I wish I had thought of that when I was asked to be Secretary.

Actually, Kit will be out West because it will help us keep in close contact with citizens whose lives are most affected by the decisions made by my Department. It is an exciting time and we are proud to have her as part of the Bush team.

In his first six months, President Bush has worked to replace a culture of gridlock and cynicism with a constructive spirit of bipartisan respect and results.

In his first six months, the President:

Changed the tone in Washington;

Made education our nation's top priority;

And took immediate action to jump-start our economy by signing tax relief that is sending money to 1.6 million Colorado families.

As you know, he launched a Cabinet level energy policy group.

Just after the midnight hour, early last Friday morning, the House of Representatives overcame enormous odds and passed the President's energy plan on a bipartisan vote.

More than three dozen Democratic House members - including five members of the Black Caucus - voted for the first long-term energy plan this country has seen in a generation.

Republicans and Democrats stood along side men and women from union families, as well as Alaska natives to form an intensive crusade to set the record straight about the President's bipartisan energy plan.

The House bill recognized that Americans must not be complacent about our energy needs.

California's rolling black outs have become less frequent. Gasoline prices have fallen. Air quality is stable. America is getting back to business as usual. We shouldn't be.

What happened in our nation's energy markets earlier this year can be likened to an engine light on the dashboard of a car. The light is blinking on our dashboard, giving us a chance to take action before a major crisis.

Therefore, we must embrace a long-term energy plan that protects our air and water quality, promotes more efficient use of energy and increases environmentally safe development of domestic energy.

Otherwise, we may see our country's economic engine - with its investments in environmental protection - sputter to a crawl.

The facts are simple. Over the next 20 years, U.S. natural gas consumption is expected to grow by more than 50 percent, while domestic production will increase only 14 percent. I know you've heard that statistic before-since I first heard in from COGA members.

At the same time, if oil production follows the pattern of the last 10 years, it will decline by 1.5 million barrels per day in the next 20 years. But demand will increase by six million barrels a day. In short, U.S. energy production is not keeping up with the needs of our families and our economy.

The President's plan to produce more reliable, affordable and environmentally clean energy is built on three core principles - it utilizes 21^st Century technology, it is designed to meet the needs of future generations, and it will provide reliable energy while at the same time protecting the environment.

Critics of the President's plan have focused narrowly on energy development. But in fact, more than half of the 105 recommendations in the President's plan focus on improving energy efficiency and conservation, protecting the environment, and diversifying our energy supply through development of renewable sources, such as wind, solar, biomass and geothermal technologies.

Concerning the proposal for environmentally safe energy production in a tiny area of ANWR - to paraphrase Mark Twain, "The reports of ANWR's demise were greatly exaggerated."

The President's initiative for environmentally safe energy production in ANWR isn't just alive - it's thriving.

A Teamsters leader said this week that organized labor will "double" its efforts in the Senate. Members of the Senate, just like in the House, will have a chance to hear the real facts about how energy can be developed in ANWR while the environment is protected.

First, energy would only be produced on a small portion of ANWR, called the 1002 Area.

To put that into perspective, ANWR is about the size of South Carolina. Because of new technologies and American ingenuity, actual energy production would take a footprint of just 2,000 acres of land. That's an area 17 times smaller than Denver International Airport.

If the state of Alaska were the new Invesco Field at Mile-High, ANWR would be on the six-yard line. The 1002 Area would be on the one-half yard line. The actual area of energy production would be equal to the length of less than one chainlink on the 10-yard marker.

For non football fans - let me give you another example. If the state of Alaska were a two-hour movie - ANWR would represent six minutes and 24 seconds. The 1002 Area would equal one-half minute and the area of energy production would be four-hundredths of a second, about the time it takes to blink your eye.

ANWR has been called the largest untapped onshore energy reserve in our nation. Experts calculate that ANWR could have as much as 16 billion barrels of oil - as much as we currently import from Saudi Arabia over thirty years. Even the median calculations say ANWR has enough reserves to replace what we currently import from Saddam Hussein for twenty years.

With ice roads that leave no mark, directional drilling, and most exploration activities permitted only in the dead of winter, we can produce energy and protect our environment for future generations.

The strictest most all-encompassing environmental protection measures ever initiated on federal lands will apply should the ANWR proposal be approved by Congress.

Of course, we are not asking Colorado energy producers to begin using ice roads to access your wells. I used to think a chilly day out on the ski slopes was cold, it's nothing. Minus 35 degrees with a biting wind - a minus 75-degree wind chill - that's cold. That, and 24 hour a day darkness means that ice roads on the North slope stay frozen for the whole long winter. The economics of North slope production-with such vast energy resources in one area-make it worthwhile to go to such great lengths.

My Department in cooperation with DOE, is studying public lands to evaluate surface land use restrictions and subsurface energy resources. The goal is to identify places where we can tap oil and gas resources with the least environmental impact. We can further avoid resource conflicts with a problem-solving approach.

It takes remarkable partnerships to create and manage the resources in this country.

As Secretary of the Interior, I have worked to change the tone in which we talk about conserving and protecting our environment. I am trying to foster a new culture of communication, cooperation, a culture of consultation - all to serve the cause of conservation.

I believe there are good ideas all over America - and I believe in the value of developing partnerships and listening to people.

We are already making advances. A few months ago, I visited the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve in Oklahoma. I saw free-roaming bison lumber past prairie flowers while oil wells produced energy.

The Nature Conservancy owns the land. The Osage Indian Tribe owns the mineral rights. If anything happens to one of the wells, the Nature Conservancy calls professors and students at Tulsa University to immediately mitigate the situation.

It's a wonderful win-win situation. The bison herd is thriving. The Osage Nation receives much needed funds from the oil revenues. The students receive training and conduct research that improves technology for energy production areas across the nation. The University program shares cost effective environmental protection ideas with energy producers throughout the region.

None of this would be possible without the partnership of The Nature Conservancy. They made extraordinary efforts to conserve and protect this remnant of the once vast landscapes of Tallgrass Prairie and the diversity of plants and wildlife there.

This example is a result of partnerships, cooperation and good will.

Americans share a great concern about our environment. We want to hand down to our children a land that is as rich in clean rivers, abundant wildlife, and wide-open spaces as the one that was handed down to us. To do so, we must carefully consider how we develop our energy resources, and protect our environment.

Technological breakthroughs can help protect our environment and meet energy needs. By bringing America's production and energy supply network into the 21^st century, the President's energy plan will allow us to access the abundant energy resources in our country.

At the same time, it safeguards our environment and ensures our land will be healthy for future generations. Protecting our environment or developing our energy resources is no longer a one choice answer, both are possible.

From the Alaskan tundra to the Gulf of Mexico to Colorado - we must build on new technologies to ensure our environment is safe.

In the Piceanse Basin and other areas of Colorado, natural gas producers are using directional drilling to reach down seven to eight thousand feet to reach reserves. Newly developed modular rigs are 75 percent smaller than before.

Many companies in Colorado are using solar technology to monitor production at their sites. 3-D seismic technology allows producers to better pinpoint where energy is. That means fewer wells drilled, less impact on the environment, and a lower cost to consumers.

We must join together and maintain high standards in energy production. Those in the industry who seek short-term gains at the expense of our environment do damage to the rest of the industry, and hamper the ability to meet America's energy needs.

From the government's side, we must work to minimize delays, uncertainties, and red tape that help neither industry nor the environment. To accomplish this we are reviewing our permitting and right-of-way procedure. I suspect that some applications simply languish in someone's desk drawer, for weeks or months -- we must prevent this. Or agencies may conduct their studies one at a time. We could do reviews simultaneously to expedite decision making without damaging the quality of the decisions.

We are exploring royalty in-kind options. We are working with Indian Tribes to provide technical assistance in facilitating leasing of their lands. We are examining where we need additional manpower to process applications or conduct land management plans. I welcome your suggestions for ways we can improve our program to be more efficient and accountable.

Many Americans unfortunately are not aware of many of the energy environment success stories I spoke of earlier. I ask you to help us create more successes and build more partnerships. I ask you to work diligently and creatively toward environmental innovation. I ask you to help demonstrate to the American public that we can meet our energy needs, provide energy security to our nation, keep our economy growing -- and enjoy a healthy environment all at the same time. Thank you.