Based on information provided by the Department of the Interior (DOI), CBO estimates that implementing H.R. 2295 would have no significant effect on the federal budget. Because enacting the legislation would not affect direct spending or revenues, pay-as-you-go procedures do not apply.
The bill would require the Secretary of the Interior to identify parcels of federal land that could be used to build natural gas pipelines and designate those parcels as national energy security corridors. The bill also would authorize the National Park Service (NPS) to allow natural gas pipelines to be constructed on lands administered by the agency.
Under current law, DOI has the authority to designate corridors on federal lands for constructing oil and gas pipelines and for electricity transmission and distribution facilities. In 2009, DOI and the Forest Service designated approximately 6,000 miles of such corridors crossing federal lands in 11 western states. H.R. 2295 would require the Secretary to designate at least 10 similar corridors across any of the other 39 states within two years of enactment of the bill. Because current law already requires DOI to designate energy corridors on federal lands, CBO estimates that a requirement to establish additional corridors would have a minimal effect on DOI’s workload and the agency’s budget.
In addition, CBO expects that the provision in the bill authorizing NPS to allow natural gas pipelines to be constructed on lands administered by the agency would not significantly affect the agency’s workload. Thus, we estimate that implementing the bill would have a negligible effect on the agency’s budget.
H.R. 2295 contains no intergovernmental or private-sector mandates as defined in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act and would not affect the budgets of state, local, or tribal governments.
