The real concern, though, isn't just how fast but where the BLM is
granting leases. Last month, the U.S. government ignored protests of
local communities and issued oil and
gas leases in watersheds that provide Grand Junction and Palisade with
drinking water. The move was especially alarming because last summer's
federal energy legislation exempted a common oil field practice from
clean water laws.
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Oil and gas leasing moving too quickly
The rush to issue drilling rights that won't be used anytime soon
threatens to leave a conflicted legacy on our landscapes and wildlife
for decades.
Colorado resources will help meet the nation's energy needs, but oil
and gas development should respect other public values such as clean
air, clean water and wildlife. There is a risk that the frenetic pace
of oil and gas activity in the West is running roughshod over other
public goals. And the leases now being granted could dictate the fate
of our public lands and national forests for decades.
The Bush administration long has pushed for expanded drilling on
federal lands, even in ecologically sensitive areas. As a result, if a
future Congress wants to someday protect those areas, it may be too
late. Mineral leases are property rights, so once oil and gas companies
obtain them they have all but guaranteed their ability to move in drill
rigs, usually within a 10-year window. Oil companies also must apply
for drilling permits, but that approval is very likely.
Ironically, energy outfits already have more federal land under lease
than they can drill in the foreseeable future. The U.S. Bureau of Land
Management's 2004 data show that energy companies have leased 35
million acres of public lands, but only about a third, or 11.6 million
acres, are producing any oil or gas. Energy companies have more than
4,300 leases on federal lands in Colorado, but in 2004 sought
permission to drill on just 378. The backlog of untapped leases means
that oil and gas companies have locked in their right to drill on
public lands well beyond this administration.
The companies say there's so much drilling taking place that they can't
get enough rigs - they're even bringing in rigs from China. So this
month, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management's Colorado office changed its
rules; now, energy companies won't forfeit their rights even if they
miss existing deadlines to drill on lands they lease from Uncle Sam.
The change will have the effect of prolonging the era that current
leasing policies hold sway.
The real concern, though, isn't just how fast but where the BLM is
granting leases. Last month, the U.S. government ignored protests of
local communities and issued oil and
gas leases in watersheds that provide Grand Junction and Palisade with
drinking water. The move was especially alarming because last summer's
federal energy legislation exempted a common oil field practice from
clean water laws.
I
n northwestern Colorado, the BLM's field office sensibly recommended
against oil and gas leasing on 20,000 acres where the endangered
black-footed ferret was recently re-introduced by the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service and the Colorado Division of Wildlife. But higher-ups
in the BLM still nominated much of the area near Rangely for leasing.
The BLM's action in that case alarms Coloradans trying to protect
another sensitive site, the Roan Plateau near Rifle. The BLM has been
preparing an environmental study and taking public comments about
proposed natural gas drilling atop the Roan. Meanwhile, energy
companies are blasting and bulldozing roads onto the plateau. The
companies say they're accessing leases on private land, but citizen
advocates fear the companies are building the roads knowing that the
BLM will let them on to the public domain, too.
State biologists say drilling on the Roan will reduce mule deer herds
by a third - one of many studies that show intensive oil and gas
activity impacts wildlife. The BLM can impose special wildlife
protection rules, called stipulations, on drilling companies, but it
often waives the stipulations with no public notice or comment. Oil
companies also have asked Congress to end the BLM's authority to impose
any wildlife stipulations.
Decades after Bush leaves office, his policy of intensively leasing
public lands will leave a conflicted legacy on our region's landscapes
and wildlife.
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