Posted on 08/08/2003 7:58:37 AM PDT by bedolido
WASHINGTON - The Bush administration on Thursday ordered federal land managers across the Rockies to look for ways to remove or reduce environmental restrictions on federal lands in order to make way for oil and gas drilling.
The new rules issued by Bureau of Land Management Director Kathleen Clarke represent a ramping up of the administration's push to develop several key natural gas fields in the Rocky Mountain West. They order BLM officials to review environmental restrictions, speed up energy projects, streamline environmental restoration and maintain ties with industry.
"What it says is make sure the restrictions in place are the appropriate ones," said BLM spokesman David Quick. "Don't do more than what's needed, because there's energy there.
"But I've also heard it said, 'We may find we need to do more (environmental protection)."'
The rules were cheered by oil and gas drillers who say land that is supposed to be open to drilling is locked up by partial but overlapping restrictions.
"I would characterize it as a positive step forward," said Dan Naatz of the Independent Petroleum Association of America. "It's also a recognition that the way they're working the system right now could be greatly improved."
Environmentalists say the directives show that Bush's pledge to do "environmentally responsible" energy development is an empty one.
"Not only are they speeding things up, they're weakening environmental protections," said Sharon Buccino of the Natural Resources Defense Council. "It exposes their lack of interest in protecting the environment."
The new orders for land managers stem from a report issued in January that inventoried oil and gas reserves in five Western basins and catalogued environmental restrictions that hinder access to the oil and gas.
The basins cover nearly all of Colorado's Western Slope and also include areas in Montana, Utah and Wyoming. They are the Paradox/San Juan Basin in the Four Corners area, the Uinta/Piceance Basin in west-central Colorado, the Greater Green River Basin in southwestern Wyoming and northwestern Colorado, the Montana Thrust Belt, which includes the Rocky Mountain Front, and the Powder River Basin in northeastern Wyoming and southeastern Montana.
The study found that 63 percent of the natural gas in those basins was completely open to drilling, while 25 percent was partially restricted. It found that 12 percent of the gas was totally off-limits, which was about what environmentalists had been saying.
The results frustrated congressional Republicans who had ordered the study, who felt it overestimated the amount of freely accessible energy. Industry officials said the study left out many potential restrictions.
Clarke is asking land managers to take a second look at the 25 percent of partially restricted lands to see whether the protections still make sense.
The restrictions usually are intended to protect endangered species during key periods of the year, such as nesting, mating or migration.
The industry says that the nesting restrictions for one species, added to the migration restrictions for another species, can combine with forbidding weather to essentially lock up land that is officially listed as open to drilling.
Environmentalists say that if energy producers were as nature- friendly as their statements and advertisements, they could abide by the restrictions by using technologies such as horizontal drilling to get the gas without disturbing wildlife.
Clarke ordered BLM's state and field offices to determine by Dec. 31 whether to change existing land-use plans to facilitate oil and gas exploration and development.
She also said that each BLM state office with a significant oil and gas program must, within a year from now, begin holding at least one meeting a year with industry representatives to discuss drilling-related policy changes.
And she told land managers that when they require drillers to do environmental restoration to compensate for any damage, they should make sure it is the "least restrictive necessary" to accomplish the goal. And it tells them to look for ways to let gas companies do restoration outside of the targeted drilling zones.
"That means you can completely trash the Rocky Mountain Front, you can completely trash eastern Utah, western Colorado and the Powder River Basin if you promise to do good things somewhere else," said Susan Daggett a lawyer with Earthjustice.
Parachute Mayor John Loschke, however, doesn't consider expediting energy development a problem.
"The (national) economy and the local economy need these jobs," Loschke said. "As long as the companies are responsible in production efforts, then go get it, boys."
Thursday's changes are part of a broad effort by the administration and congressional Republicans to develop the West's energy.
The industry says the Rockies sit on a "Persian Gulf of natural gas" that is essential to meeting the nation's energy needs as power plants turn to cleaner burning natural gas. Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan has warned that natural gas shortages could damage the economy.
Just last month, the administration convened the Rocky Mountain Energy Council, a group of federal officials charged with speeding up energy permitting decisions in the West. And the energy bill being considered by Congress includes several measures to speed up drilling and other energy projects in the West.
The clear message to land managers, says former national forest supervisor Gloria Flora of Helena, Mont., is that they're supposed to keep oil and gas companies happy.
"Some decision-maker is going to sit there and say, 'My president wants this. I can't have any obstacles to drilling," Flora said. "I have to find ways to accommodate this, even against my better judgment."
Sharon then went on to say, "We don't care if everyone's heating/cooling bills double or triple because of shortages. That is not our problem."
Parachute Mayor John Loschke, however, doesn't consider expediting energy development a problem. "The (national) economy and the local economy need these jobs," Loschke said. "As long as the companies are responsible in production efforts, then go get it, boys."
My sentiments exactly as well as your comments about Texas.
ENERGY IS THE LIFEBLOOD OF THIS COUNTRY, and if we don't get it here, we will spend the REAL lifeblood of our children protecting middle east sources.
To them, the only good energy development is NO energy development.
Let me know if you wish to be added or removed from this list.
they do this already...especially if a land owner is too ignorant to let them set up a vertical rig on their land...the company just drills from the neighbours property and the land owner collects a royalty check...happens all the time in Alberta where I used to work (as a "juggie", "Jughound", or "doodlebug" whatever they call it now) for Geco-Prakla, a company owned by Schlumberger.
And babyface, yes, the impact of NG wells is minimal. They're all over the place here, and one hardly notices them.
FMCDH
If you want to protect the environment then go buy some of it.
FMCDH
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