The Tulsa World reports that “for more than two hours Monday afternoon, Osage County oil and gas producers, residents and tribal officials took turns picking apart a proposed new environmental assessment on their area’s drilling operations.”  

“The Bureau of Indian Affairs, which oversees the oil and gas industry in the county on behalf of the Osage Nation, has said the area needs a new environmental impact statement and conducted a study over the span of more than a year.”  

“If approved, the report on the study, published earlier this month in the Federal Register, would replace a blanket declaration issued in 1979 by the BIA that Osage County’s oil and gas production has no significant environmental impact.”