American Oil and Gas Reporter - April 2016 - 93

ConventionSection: Kansas Independent Oil & Gas Association
office.
Powell says KIOGA also continues
to advocate for an end to federal agencies
making policy decisions after negotiating
privately with environmental groups.
"These environmental groups have
made deals where they sue USFWS or
the EPA over a particular issue, and they
then sit down behind closed doors and,
without any input from stakeholders or
Congress, come up with a settlement that
imposes costs and regulations on people
who have had no input," Powell says. "In
a lot of cases, the people involved include
former EPA employees who now are
working for these environmental groups.
I call that environmental cronyism."
Cross says KIOGA supports legislation
introduced by Senator Chuck Grassley,
R-Ia., and Representative Doug Collins,
R-Ga., that would block such sue-andsettle tactics. S 378 and HR 712, the Sunshine for Regulatory Decrees and Settlement
Act of 2015, have advanced to their chambers' respective judiciary committees.
According to a congressional website,
the legislation prohibits prenegotiated
consent decrees and settlement agreements

in cases seeking to compel agency action,
and also requires those decrees and agreements to be filed only after interested
parties have an opportunity to intervene
in the litigation and join settlement negotiations.
"This bill helps restore regulatory accountability by allowing for public scrutiny
and comment on proposed federal regulations, and by making it easier for affected
parties to take part in settlement negotiations," Grassley says.
Although many believe the legislation
is unlikely to help much under this administration, Cross says, the bills will
lay a foundation for future congressional
action.
"When the next administration gets
into office, the oil and gas industry will
have a foundation from which to work,"
he assesses. "It is important in Washington
to keep oil and gas issues-whether they
are taxes, regulatory concerns or other
issues-on legislators' agendas, so operators
and KIOGA must continually discuss
those issues with key policymakers and
ensure they do not forget about them."
KIOGA also is waiting to see who

will fill the vacancy on the U.S. Supreme
Court left by Justice Antonin Scalia's
death on Feb. 13, Powell says. All Americans must be concerned about the
Supreme Court's future makeup, he says,
because the balance of constitutional
power is what ensures the president does
not exceed his powers.
"That is a very big part of what people
are going to go to the polls for in November," Powell poses. "They may not
realize it, but that will be an important
decision by the future president. It looks
as if the Senate will not give President
Obama the ability to replace Justice
Scalia, and that decision will fall to the
next president. It is very possible that in
the next four years, there could be one or
two other Supreme Court justices retire
and need to be replaced. These decisions
have long-term consequences because
these justices serve for a very long time."❒

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