The chairman of the Three Affiliated Tribes says the federal government needs more employees – to help speed up the oil leasing process on the reservation.
Tex Hall says it takes a long time to get drilling permits on Fort Berthold because federal agencies dealing with permitting on federal land are under-staffed. Hall says the recent 16 day federal government shutdown didn’t help.
"We could not do new permits during the shutdown," said Hall. "When those permits weren't happening, we had companies that were ready to move their rigs to Sidney, MT."
Sen.Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND) agrees the federal government needs to staff up to take care of the pending permits.
"If you can get a permit in a couple of weeks off the reservation, and it takes you many months on the reservation, then those resources may move off (the reservation," said Heitkamp. "There are only so many drilling rigs."
Heitkamp says she will continue to push for increased staffing – and will be working with the federal agencies in question to find out what they need to do the job.