Posted on 02/28/2004 10:27:02 AM PST by Come And Take It
BNP Petroleum given rights to erect well on Padre Island National Seashore
SAN ANTONIO (AP) - A Coastal Bend energy company can begin drilling what will become the eighth natural gas well on Padre Island National Seashore, federal officials say.
The National Park Service hopes to minimize the effect on visitors and the environment by limiting to 20 the number of total round trips that trucks from Corpus Christi-based BNP Petroleum can travel on the otherwise undeveloped barrier island, Darrell Echols, chief of science and resources management division at the national park, said Thursday.
A national environmental group blamed President Bush for encouraging increased oil and gas exploration on federal land, instead of cleaner sources of energy.
"I think what we're seeing with the approval of the permit is the fruits of an administration that would rather spoil our natural heritage and our natural resources for the profit of a few, rather than protect our national parks and invest in renewable resources," Chris Wilhite, regional conservation organizer for the Sierra Club's Southern Plains region, told the San Antonio Express-News in Friday's online edition.
The Sierra Club last year lost a fight before the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals over the drilling. Environmentalists had argued that the government failed to comply with part of the Endangered Species Act when it adopted an oil and gas management plan for the seashore. The appeals court said the Park Service had identified possible effects of the project on the Kemp's ridley sea turtle.
According to U.S. Geological Survey estimates, 80 billion cubic feet of natural gas lies beneath the 130,454-acre seashore the longest remaining undeveloped stretch of barrier island in the world. That's enough gas to satisfy the nation's entire demand for about two days, according to the American Gas Association, an industry group.
"The national park was established for people to enjoy not for trucks to be driving up and down there and basically turning this into a petroleum and gas exploration superhighway," said Wilhite.
When Congress created the seashore in 1962, it left the subsurface mineral rights in the hands of private owners and the state.
Echols acknowledged that visitors objected two years ago when the Park Service allowed the island's seventh natural gas well. About 500,000 people visit the seashore each year.
The trucks, which Echols said would range in size from a pickup towing a trailer to an 18-wheeler, will be grouped together in small convoys and instructed to drive no faster than 15 mph. The speed limit for other vehicles is 25 mph.
The worst of the truck travel along the beach should be over by May, Echols said.
Works for me.
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