"The Trump administration's nominee to oversee the Interior Department's land and minerals management said today he hopes to expedite federal oil and gas permit processing.

Joseph Balash told lawmakers he would emulate the approach he took as an Alaska state official in deploying technology and other means to cut what he called a 'tremendous' permit backlog.

'I'm pleased to say we were able to eliminate more than 50 percent of that backlog,' Balash said, adding that, 'ultimately, I would seek to perform a similar review' at Interior."

Michael Doyle reports for Greenwire September 7, 2017. [2]