Thanks for linking to my story. And for the link to Bleizeffer's excellent reporting.

Please let me add this- taken from the Casper-Star article:

The 1.35 trillion cubic feet of gas mined from the Atlantic Rim would be enough to heat 19.3 million homes for a year.

That is an amazing, and I'm sure, accurate figure. Now let's figure this in: the vast majority of those 19.3 million homes have furnaces that run at a maximum of 65% efficiency. The power plants that will consume the other millions of cubic feet of natural gas mined from the Atlantic Rim will waste about 35% of the gas that they goes into them.

Rather than addressing the radical inefficencies first, a government approves a headlong rush to extract the resource from public lands, making its decisions in secret, and in full partnership with the industry that will most profit in the short-term. All of this takes place during a time of war, and in a time of extreme concern over the energy future of that nation. It takes place during a time of unprecedented national debt, and it passes the costs of reclamation or lack of water resources or lack of natural gas, to future generations, just so that profits can be maximized, right now.

Is that a sound model for the most powerful nation on the planet?

There is far more here than just the loss of wildlife and sagebrush country.

Hal

Hal, just think of what could be saved just by kicking to the curb traditional water heater tanks. Australia is considering this now. I believe any city, county, or state has the power to require both new construction and replacement water heating systems to meet certain energy requirements. Why do "green" cities like Missoula sit on their hands over this step? With all of the excess tax revenues Montana found itself awash in, it would be so simple to set up a tax credit to help fund the change.

Your position against any new energy development until the current energy produced is more effeciently used sounds like a conservative principle applied to tax arguments. Have you gone over to the dark side? ;-)

I agree with you regarding the potential of a city like Missoula, and I would respect the fact that such a positive step would be undertaken on the local level.
I guess I've always been on the side of conservatism. I'm a leave me and my family alone conservative, desirous of a very small, very effective central government that works for the good of the nation, its protection from outside threats, and its future. That said, seems to me that on the week after the terror attacks on New York, our (now very bloated) government would have established an office of energy efficiency and conservation, and one of the goals would have been to kickstart a revolution in appliance efficiency by some carefully administered subsidies and tax credits. Rather than giving them to the oil companies that do a very profitable business with our mortal enemies, we could have funded the water heater, furnace, etc manufacturers, and by now we would have those appliances in place- or as you say, offer a tax credit for homeowners and businesses to upgrade. This would produce a tremendous economic boost as well, alas, not directly for the industries who have been given the reins of our nation, thus the lack of action.

I bought a 90plus % efficient furnace in 2003, and it has paid for itself already (I mostly heat with wood, which has its own drawbacks of course). Tried to get an on demand water heater but could not afford it.
I'm not against "any" new energy development. This development could be done in a sane manner. One of the ways that could be accomplished is if the BLM and other agencies followed the laws that the citizens made regarding the protection of land, water, and wildlife.

The public lands energy development as it is being conducted now is a giveaway of public resources at tremendous cost to the environment and the future. No citizen, conservative or liberal, could support it as it is being conducted right now, if they knew the details.

Pillage and squander is not a sustainable economic model.

Best,

Hal

Hal, I couldn't agree more. Thank you for your very thoughtful remarks. Politics just doesn't lend itself to telling people they need to go on a diet. Perhaps Montana could incentivize public utilities to underwrite the capital cost and lease the tankless systems to consumers.

Someday, I hope we get to share together a stretch of water, a field full of birds, or wild country with antlerzillas and swap a few lies...and perhaps a libation or two. We should get Schneider in on this too.

Best to you as well.

Craig

I find it hard to consider that a country that cannot commit itself to win a war could find a way to make a commitment to lessen the collective impact on things of environmental concern.

Yesterday, I read that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Bill Clinton gave $45 million to the Tahoe Authority to do good things in the wake of the Angora Fire. The money comes from the sale of BLM prior wilderness study area lands sold to further the residential and commercial expansion of Las Vegas and Clark county, all in Nevada. That land will become habitat for the folks who are required to keep gambling, prostitution, money laundering, dog fighting and the likes on the up-and-up, hopefully all will belong to the unions that staff the entertainment industry, their dues going to keep Reid in office, eating well, flying in comfort, and with plenty of graft to spread like peanut butter at the kindergarten luncheon. Ex Pres Bill is hard into becoming Mr. Whitehouse husband, and being a bag man for Las Vegas vigorish is appropriate, matches his character, shows he still has it.

I forgot. What is it about gas wells that make that land more unfit for wildlife than a Levittown Las Vegas on former BLM land?

Can you ship Las Vegas the water developed by the gas wells? Or is it just that nobody outside of a few ranchers in Nevada know that the good Mormon Senator Harry Reid negotiated a coup that seized all the unclaimed subsurface water in Nevada for Clark County? Except in 6 counties in NE Nevada that had the good sense to stop them in their jurisdictions. Las Vegas owns all the unclaimed water under that great expanse of Nevada that is BLM and USFS. Even under the military bases. Now how did that get by Earthjustice? Or were they just in on the sting.

Eureka!! Make the gas nasty drillers buy the land, at which point a good friend of the environment Democrat can give the money, only in an election year, to some poor burned out county in Western Wyoming for "rehabilitation", which would fund bilingual Head Start for illegal immigrants only, a trout stream improvement, and a study of why wolves won't eat asparagus with Angus. Hell, I got a pocket knife and would be willing to help "earmark" the money, the messenger, and the politician.

The answer to hot water heaters is like the toilet deal. Don't let manufacturers make them any more. We got used to a two flusher replacing our one flusher, and the noise factor, and we can get used to in line water heating. Or at least water heaters that are fully insulated, are 95% efficient or more. As long as there is money in it for the politicians. You have to pay for economy, for savings. It is the American Way!!!