Washington, D.C.

Study: U.S. leasing 229M acres for energy development

The federal government has leased 229 million acres in 12 western states for energy development since 1982, an area equal to the combined acreage of Montana, Utah and Wyoming, according to a study an environmental group issued Tuesday.

The report, conducted by the Environmental Working Group, was based on an analysis of 125 million records from the Interior Department; EWG said it was the most comprehensive overview to date of how recent administrations have opened up public land to oil and gas drilling.

While administrations from both parties have leased federal property for energy exploration, the Bush administration has removed barriers to drilling on 45 million acres in 12 western states since 2001, while the Clinton administration put 64 million acres off-limits between 1993 and 2000, the study said.

Washington, D.C.

CIA nominee backed ’95 bill to slash intelligence

President Bush’s nominee to be the director of central intelligence, Rep. Porter J. Goss, R-Fla., sponsored legislation that would have cut intelligence personnel by 20 percent in the late 1990s.

Goss, who has been chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence for the past eight years, was one of six original co-sponsors of legislation in 1995 that called for cuts of at least 4 percent per year between 1996 and 2000 in the total number of people employed throughout the intelligence community.

The legislation, part of a wide-ranging budget-cutting measure that included abolishing the Energy Department and privatizing the air-traffic control system, never received a vote.

Dallas

New moons discovered

If you’re keeping an updated census of solar system moons, it’s time to add to the list.

Last week, the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft spotted two new moons orbiting Saturn. The two satellites, named S/2004 S1 and S/2004 S2, are both about 2 miles across — the smallest ever observed orbiting the giant. Saturn’s smallest previously known moon was about 12 miles across.

The discovery, made by University of Paris planetary scientist Sebastien Charnoz, increases Saturn’s moon-count to 33.