Re: Good news on BLM/Forest Service right-of-way issue ,
 Great news.  Good work!!

Sue Nord, Sr. Director
Government Affairs
713 345-4196




	Stephen D Burns
	07/12/2001 06:05 PM
		 
		 To: Linda Robertson/NA/Enron@ENRON
		 cc: Richard Shapiro/NA/Enron@Enron, Sue Nord/NA/Enron@Enron, Scott 
Bolton/Enron Communications@Enron Communications
		 Subject: Good news on BLM/Forest Service right-of-way issue


This language is in the 2002 Senate Interior Appropriations Bill, which was 
debated and passed moments ago.

   Following concern prompting Congressional action last year, the      
   Committee applauds the commitment by the Secretary of the Interior and  
   the Secretary of Agriculture to consult with Congress prior to          
   initiating any attempt to amend or revise the linear right-of-way rental
   fee schedule published on July 8, 1987 (43 CFR 2803.1 2(c)(1)(I)).      

In consulting with Senate appropriations staff, we agreed that we didn't want 
to hit the agencies the same way we did last year, when we used control of 
the pursestrings to prevent the BLM and Forest Service from "implementing any 
final rules".  

In fact, there's another good reason to have backed off from an 
appropriations-only tactic: we're close to introducing authorizing language 
in the House that will fix the "fair market value" definitional problem that 
underlies all of this once and for all.

Instead, this approps language puts any agency activity squarely under 
Congressional scrutiny, which you'll recall was not the case last year when 
the agencies attempted to change the interpretation of ROW regs outside of 
even a rulemaking process.

We'll now have the same strategy that we did at this time last year -- defend 
this in conference.  And we'll continue separately to push our authorizing 
language to fix the problem, as well as closely monitor the collection of 
market data and any other signs of mischief by the agencies.
stephen.burns@enron.com