Feds cite lapses in oil, gas drilling

The Interior Department is spending so much time approving oil and gas drilling permits on public lands that it often fails to do an adequate job policing the environment, congressional investigators say.

Nationwide, oil and gas drilling permits from the department’s Bureau of Land Management more than tripled from 1999 to 2004. But as those rose, from 1,803 to 6,399, BLM officials in five Western field offices complained staffers had less time for field inspections.