GUEST COMMENTARY

Salazar Moves Toward Common Sense Oil and Gas Development

By Brad Powell, Guest Writer, 1-15-10

	Brad Powell. Photo courtsy of Trout Unlimited.

Last week’s announcement from Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar was just what the doctor ordered when it comes to the public land energy debate currently raging in the West. It was a relief to see some balance restored the oil and gas leasing process that, over the last decade, prioritized energy extraction at the expense of virtually every other use of land belonging to all Americans.

It’s no wonder, with the bounty it’s enjoyed in recent years, the industry is pushing back and crying foul over Salazar’s reforms, which include allowing more public input and site-specific reviews of leasing applications. But it’s important to note that, while Salazar’s proposals are a good step in the right direction, much is left to do to fully rein in irresponsible drilling on public lands.

Obviously, water quality issues need to be addressed, and perhaps there’s room for that in the site-specific review process Salazar is putting in place. Too often, over the last 10 years or so, we’ve seen water resources greatly diminished thanks to untimely spills, groundwater contamination and even surface water pollution.

Water--not gas or oil--is the West’s greatest resource. More emphasis must be placed on protecting it. In the West, our communities depend on clean water supplies, and our outdoor heritage, which includes hunting and fishing, depends greatly on water quality.

We can develop our oil and natural gas resources, but it’s time industry and its allies realize the bulk of the West’s inland energy comes from beneath public lands, and meeting basic environmental and cultural requirements isn’t something that ought to be groused over. Rather, working with the government and local stakeholders to extract oil and natural gas responsibly in a manner that benefits the community, the taxpaying public and industry should be a priority.

For sportsmen and women in the West, the fight to protect intact fish and wildlife habitat--and to restore habitat that has been needlessly damaged by irresponsible drilling--is just beginning. Hunters and anglers have perhaps the most intimate connection with the land and its waters, and too often in recent years, we’ve sacrificed in order to ensure oil and gas could be pulled from the ground for the betterment of our nation.

Understandably, oil and gas extraction is a dirty business, but we assumed proper steps would be taken to reclaim tarnished habitat, or to avoid harming priceless lands altogether. We’ve been disappointed.

Now, with Secretary Salazar restoring some very basic restrictions to the oil and gas leasing and permitting process, we believe there’s hope that “responsible development” isn’t just an oxymoron dreamt up by some energy company executive. We truly do want to see our energy resources maximized, but we’re not willing sacrifice any more irreplaceable fish and game habitat while the industry sits on undeveloped leases or refuses to take needed steps to protect fish and game habitat.

And for hunters and anglers, habitat translates into opportunity. Simple as that.

We appreciate Secretary Salazar’s efforts to bring some common-sense reforms back to this process, and we look forward to working with him to correct even more flaws in the oil and gas extraction process. The future of the multiple-use philosophy for the management of our public lands is at stake, and sportsmen and women stand by, ready to defend that uniquely American philosophy.

Footnote: Brad Powell is the western energy director for Trout Unlimited’s Sportsmen’s Conservation Project. He’s an avid sportsman and a former forest supervisor for the U.S. Forest Service.

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