Layers Initiative Pulled & Horizontal Drilling

Layers Initiative Pulled & Horizontal Drilling. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Northwest Report.

The Committee on Natural Resources is holding a hearing today on the challenges facing domestic oil and gas development and review the Bureau of Land Management/ U.S. Forest Service ban on horizontal drilling on federal lands. Washington Congressman Doc Hastings.

HASTINGS: The Department of Interior questions whether horizontal drilling and other techniques in order to get oil and gas is - well we don’t know what their position is and that’s why we’re having the hearing. But the point is in a nutshell, drilling for oil and gas with this new technology means that the footprint on the surface is very, very small but underground the horizontal drilling allows you to get oil and gas from areas going as much as 12 miles underground. It’s pretty remarkable.

After spending weeks collecting signatures, animal welfare groups were scheduled to deliver signatures today to put an initiative on Washington’s ballot.  But they abruptly called off their campaign yesterday, after the national Humane Society reached a last-minute agreement with the United Egg Producers. Both sides agreed to support federal legislation that would require a phase-in of larger cages with 124 square inches per bird.  The so-called “enhanced colony” cages would also have nesting boxes, perches and scratching pads for hens, but would still be stacked.

Now here’s today’s Washington Grange report.

(Grange)

That’s today’s Northwest Report. I’m Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.