ROCKY MOUNTAIN LAND USE GROK
Drilling the Roan Plateau
By David Frey, 6-14-07
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It’s official, but it’s no surprise. The Bureau of Land Management has approved opening up the vast Roan Plateau in western Colorado to natural gas drilling. Also no surprise, the decision delighted the energy industry, which has been eying a treasure trove of natural gas believed to lie below. No surprise either, that it disturbed environmentalists, several groups of outfitters and wildlife advocates and a number of local communities that wanted to see the flattop mountain preserved.
Add to that list a pair of congressmen and Colorado’s governor, who expressed outrage that the BLM – whose motto in recent years stressed collaboration with locals, would ignore their concerns.
The BLM has spun the plan as grand compromise between energy interests and environmental interests. It seeks to protect some of the plateau’s most fragile areas, including its canyons and streams, filled with a genetically-pure population of native cutthroat trout. Development on top would be phased, with well pads scattered at least half a mile from each other and surface disturbance limited to about 1 percent of the total acreage. A single energy company would handle all the groundwork.
The agency has protected 13 well pads and 210 well pads on top at a time. That could mean 1,570 natural gas wells over 20 years.
State BLM director Sally Wisely says the plan “offers strong protection for fish and wildlife habitat, scenic views, and ecologically sensitive areas, yet still allows most of the federal natural gas resource.”
But environmentalists have blasted it for opening up the top to gas rigs in a battle that has echoes of the feud over drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. They’ve been joined by an unlikely coalition of hunters and anglers, as well as several local communities who have called for keeping wells off the top.
Congressmen John Salazar and Mark Udall, both Democrats have joined the fray. So has newly-elected Gov. Bill Ritter, also a Democrat. Salazar and Udall are seeking Congressional action to block funding for Roan drilling for the next fiscal year.
“I think the BLM should be a little more respectful of members of Congress who are standing here trying to figure out a way to protect their constituents,” Salazar says. “They’re going to have to deal with a new administration in the next couple years.”
Ritter has blasted the Interior director, who oversees the BLM, for ignoring his plea for more time to study the plan. The BLM released its final record of decision last Friday, one day after he asked for 120 days to read up on it.
The energy industry, however, welcomed the move, noting that Congress handed over the land to the BLM expressly for energy development.
“This is an obvious spot that has great natural gas deposits and it’s been proven that they can be developed in an environmentally responsible way,” said Marc W. Smith, executive director of the Independent Petroleum Association of Mountain States. “I don’t understand why it’s become a political issue.”
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Comments
Add up all the surfaces of all the roads, the well pads, etc, and put them together, and they might equal one percent of the land area. But they are not all in one place are they? They are as Wyoming biologist Bill Rudd once said, like a spiderweb-crush it, roll it into a ball, it's area is insignificant, but stretch it out, as it really is and it dominates and controls its whole area. Development will dominate and ruin the Roan Plateau. that's what the BLM and forest service should say. "We're wrecking it, for natural gas." That I could respect.
The Roan Plateau is off limits to drilling. That's what the Colorado residents want. Remember when the government was "going to listen to the locals"? As long as the locals wanted to give the public lands to industry, they listened. But God forbid any local would like to keep some wilderness to hunt and fish in. Then their comments don't matter. It's not a compromise if one side always loses. There's no compromise being made here-what, that industry agrees not to just destroy the whole place, only part of it? Bull. anybody noticed your natural gas bills going down as a result of all the compromises we've made so far? How about the fuel bills for your truck? How much longer is this going to continue? How many more journalists are going to parrot lines from the BLM when it is painfully obvious to anybody who digs a little deeper that those lines are not true? This energy push into places like the Roan is negative-- however you want to parse it--80 percent negative, 90 percent negative, whatever. It's absurd to try and be totally objective about it. There are some things that are simply wrong.
We all know that, in our hearts if not in our heads.
Hal