Energy exploration in our backyard
Oil and Gas Leases up in Gallatin County
By Lucia Stewart, 7-30-08
State-owned land in and around Gallatin County could up for oil and gas development — parcels that include the riverbeds of the Yellowstone and Boulder rivers.
The Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation considers the sale of school trust land each quarter for oil and gas leasing, and are currently in the preliminary lease sale stage. And they are moving fast. Public comment closes on Friday, Aug. 1st, with the sale set to take place on Sept. 9th.
In Gallatin County, three parcels north of Interstate 90 in the Bozeman Pass area are listed on the lease sale list — an area that is prospective with oil, methane and coal from past exploratory test sites, but does fall under the Bozeman Pass zoning district that residents created in 2001 following potential coal-bed methane drilling which the Gallatin County Commissioners were pressured to implement emergency interim zoning.
“Due to the geology, there is some definite potential up there,” Alan English, Gallatin Local Water Quality District Manager said to the Belgrade News.
A majority of the parcels involve the riverbeds of the Yellowstone and Boulder Rivers, 14 in the bed the Yellowstone and 18 in the Boulder River. Click here to see a map of the parcels.
All leased parcels do need to follow the Montana Environmental Policy Act guidelines, which include a standard environmental assessment to a full-blown Environmental Impact Statement.
Comments should be submitted to O&G Lease Sale Comments, Department of Natural Resources and Conservation, P.O. Box 201601, Helena, MT, 59620-1601. Late comments will be reviewed and taken into consideration.
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So - who gets the money in this instance? Sounds like the local and state governments get it. So do we allow drilling and reap money for the state? Or do ban it, keep our wild lands and pay higher taxes?
Worse, the leases raise a trivial amount of money (averaging $46 per acre in June) compared to the developers' potential revenue from the project and the potential damage to surrounding landowners and environment. Clearly this is not an efficient market.
Further information and maps of the Gallatin & Park County sites at
http://groups.google.com/group/bridger-canyon-forum
This is a joke, right?
In 2007 the ACLU had revenue of $28 million. The Sierra Club Foundation had $29 million. Exxon had $372,000 million. Who do you think has more influence on policy?
Leases in riverbeds? Or in the Jackson Creek/Bridger area?
As a fan of public lands as they are supposed to be for the good of the public, I am beginning to re-think my belief. How can these decisions possibly be good for anyone except those companies who suck the life out of an area and leave the degredation behind?
Put up a few windmills out at Malmstrom outside of Great Falls and you could probably power the state.
Using schools as a politically correct tool to grab more and inappropriate drilling leases is particularly distasteful. Shame on Montana if the state goes down this road.
As you know, natural gas is preferred by environmentalists over petroleum, and there is currently a huge push to have autos converted to natural gas burning vehicles to help combat global warming.
Recent developments in drilling have greatly reduced the foot-print a natural gas well has on the local land, and advances in horizontal drilling make it possibly to retrieve gas from below riverbeds without raising so much as a ripple in the river itself.
Needless to say, Montana can either be a leader in the push for cleaner burning energy; or it can keep its reserves untapped and
force the US to continue to burn and import petroleum.
Remember if we don't support an interim solution on our march toward alternative energies, it is the poorest of the poor who will suffer most. It is they who must commute the farthest to work. It is they who can't afford even the smallest up-tick in prices, it is they who can't afford to trade in their vehicle for a Prius or convert their old-reliable wheels into a hybrid. And it is they who will benefit the most from the responsible development of the vast resources under our very feet.