"They have to have a fairly recent analysis of the impacts before they can apply these categorical exclusions," said Dave Alberswerth, public lands director for The Wilderness Society. "If they're planning to improperly apply these exemptions . . . in places where there are old land-use plans that are out of date, then they are asking for legal trouble."

Lawson LeGate, a Utah-based senior southwest regional representative for the Sierra Club, said it's "absurd to suggest that we need to weaken environmental oversight to help the industry."

LeGate expressed concern about proposed wilderness areas in the Book Cliffs and Desolation Canyon.

"Where you have land that ought to be protected, (drilling) it is the difference between the Garden of Eden and the post apocalypse," he said.

Interior officials expect the categorical exclusion to spur more drilling on open ranges and in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. Those include the Powder River Basin of Wyoming, the Uinta Basin of Utah and the San Juan Basin of New Mexico and Colorado, all areas where drilling already has boomed in recent years.

Other areas ripe for the expedited permits are near park land, such as Colorado's Canyons of the Ancients National Monument, though not within national parks or wilderness areas.

Last year, the bureau approved 6,052 drilling permits from about 7,000 applications submitted — a 60 percent jump in new permits over those issued in 2003. This year, the BLM expects it will approve 7,000 of the 8,000 new applications, Hughes said.

The government had 55,385 square miles of public lands leased for oil and natural gas production last year, but only a third of it — 18,236 square miles — was involved in actual energy production. Nearly all the leases the BLM considered nonproducing have never had an exploratory well drilled, nor even a single application for a permit to drill filed with the BLM.

"If you look at the actual facts on the ground, they have thousands of more drilling permits in their pockets than they can even drill on," Alberswerth said. "So why is Congress or the administration always looking for ways to exempt the wealthiest companies in the world from their environmental responsibilities?"

Lee Fuller, a spokesman for the Independent Petroleum Association of America, said environmental groups have misused the law to delay drilling permits. But Fuller also said the administration's hoped-for boost in energy production might not occur until later.

"It's hard to judge anything in terms of what might happen this winter," he said. "I don't think anybody has a clear sense of things. But whether it happens this winter or it's available next spring or summer when there's also a demand for it, you have to be ready."

---

Contributing: Deborah Bulkeley, Deseret Morning News