Auction set on oil, gas leases
BLM includes 5 areas once proposed for wilderness in west Colo.
By Theo Stein
Denver Post
One year after Interior Secretary Gale Norton lifted interim protection on 600,000 acres of potential wilderness in Colorado, the Bureau of Land Management is preparing to let oil and gas companies begin exploration on five proposed wilderness areas in the state.
At the BLM's May 13 auction, energy speculators will be allowed to bid on leases inside the Hunter Canyon, Big Ridge, Oil Spring Mountain, Dragon Canyon and Cow Ridge parcels - all of which were proposed for permanent wilderness protection by Rep. Diana DeGette, D-Colo.
If the parcels, all near Grand Junction, are developed, it could permanently eliminate a big chunk of pristine acreage in Colorado from future wilderness protection. All told, the BLM is offering 74 mineral leases on 73,750 acres of federal land in Colorado at the May auction.
Wilderness designation prohibits road building, the use of mechanized equipment and most other developments. Oil and gas production, with its attendant roads and wellpads, would permanently disqualify land from consideration as wilderness.
"This sale brings home the point that people in western Colorado need to be at the table to make decisions about what our energy future looks like," said Peter Kolbenschlag, Western Slope director for the Colorado Environmental Coalition. "The reality is the president's energy policy is permanently affecting our public lands and our quality of life."
Last week, a BLM spokesman defended the auction, noting that agency policy is to offer any available land for lease once it is nominated by an "interested party." BLM spokesman Vaughn Whatley also said many of the leases contained protections to minimize potential damage from exploration, development and production.
Under the Clinton administration, the BLM had agreed not to offer energy leases on proposed wilderness lands until Congress voted on them.
But last April, Norton settled a 6-year- old lawsuit with the state of Utah by agreeing with Utah officials that the BLM violated the law by indefinitely banning oil and gas exploration and other development without congressional approval.
She then applied the Utah agreement to all BLM lands nationwide and ordered that the agency never again consider new wilderness protections.
Norton also threw out the so- called "BLM wilderness handbook," a national policy requiring the BLM to protect 200 million acres throughout the West that could qualify as wilderness.
The decision stripped interim protection from 10 million acres of potential wilderness in Colorado, Utah, Arizona and New Mexico, environmental groups say.
On Monday, the law firm Earthjustice asked the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver to overturn the Utah decision, arguing that the Utah settlement violated federal land management laws and was the result of collusion, rather than a fair, equitable agreement.
Attorneys for the group charged that the BLM used the settlement as a vehicle for making a significant policy shift favored by the Bush administration without public input or review.
They also noted that since November, the Utah BLM office has sold 26 oil and gas leases in areas eligible for wilderness designation.
One environmental group said its review of federal documents showed that 73 percent of the 42 million acres of land leased by the BLM is not currently in production.
"There is no need to hurry up and lease more public land - especially land in citizen-proposed wilderness areas," said Peter Morton, resource economist with the Wilderness Society.
"All the administration wants to do is get more and more land under industry control."
Link
Oak
BLM includes 5 areas once proposed for wilderness in west Colo.
By Theo Stein
Denver Post
One year after Interior Secretary Gale Norton lifted interim protection on 600,000 acres of potential wilderness in Colorado, the Bureau of Land Management is preparing to let oil and gas companies begin exploration on five proposed wilderness areas in the state.
At the BLM's May 13 auction, energy speculators will be allowed to bid on leases inside the Hunter Canyon, Big Ridge, Oil Spring Mountain, Dragon Canyon and Cow Ridge parcels - all of which were proposed for permanent wilderness protection by Rep. Diana DeGette, D-Colo.
If the parcels, all near Grand Junction, are developed, it could permanently eliminate a big chunk of pristine acreage in Colorado from future wilderness protection. All told, the BLM is offering 74 mineral leases on 73,750 acres of federal land in Colorado at the May auction.
Wilderness designation prohibits road building, the use of mechanized equipment and most other developments. Oil and gas production, with its attendant roads and wellpads, would permanently disqualify land from consideration as wilderness.
"This sale brings home the point that people in western Colorado need to be at the table to make decisions about what our energy future looks like," said Peter Kolbenschlag, Western Slope director for the Colorado Environmental Coalition. "The reality is the president's energy policy is permanently affecting our public lands and our quality of life."
Last week, a BLM spokesman defended the auction, noting that agency policy is to offer any available land for lease once it is nominated by an "interested party." BLM spokesman Vaughn Whatley also said many of the leases contained protections to minimize potential damage from exploration, development and production.
Under the Clinton administration, the BLM had agreed not to offer energy leases on proposed wilderness lands until Congress voted on them.
But last April, Norton settled a 6-year- old lawsuit with the state of Utah by agreeing with Utah officials that the BLM violated the law by indefinitely banning oil and gas exploration and other development without congressional approval.
She then applied the Utah agreement to all BLM lands nationwide and ordered that the agency never again consider new wilderness protections.
Norton also threw out the so- called "BLM wilderness handbook," a national policy requiring the BLM to protect 200 million acres throughout the West that could qualify as wilderness.
The decision stripped interim protection from 10 million acres of potential wilderness in Colorado, Utah, Arizona and New Mexico, environmental groups say.
On Monday, the law firm Earthjustice asked the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver to overturn the Utah decision, arguing that the Utah settlement violated federal land management laws and was the result of collusion, rather than a fair, equitable agreement.
Attorneys for the group charged that the BLM used the settlement as a vehicle for making a significant policy shift favored by the Bush administration without public input or review.
They also noted that since November, the Utah BLM office has sold 26 oil and gas leases in areas eligible for wilderness designation.
One environmental group said its review of federal documents showed that 73 percent of the 42 million acres of land leased by the BLM is not currently in production.
"There is no need to hurry up and lease more public land - especially land in citizen-proposed wilderness areas," said Peter Morton, resource economist with the Wilderness Society.
"All the administration wants to do is get more and more land under industry control."
Link
Oak
