Alan Gregory’s Conservation NewsOil companies have colluded with the Idaho’s and Montana’s governors so they can make even more profits than if they built the machinery for the toxic Alberta tar sands mining in Canada.
20 most profitable companies. CNN Money.
Ah, some credit to two average folks fighting the international oil companies to try to save the economy, scenery, fish and wildlife of the area around U.S. Highway 12.
Idaho megaload foes win Dalton Open Government Award. By Dan Popkey. Idaho Statesman
“The Max Dalton Open Government Award has been given each year since 1999 to a citizen or group judged to be an outspoken advocate of openness in either public records or public meetings on the state or local level.”
Among many other activities trying to kill the megaload shipments across the scenic, narrow, north central Idaho highway, the Daltons exposed Butch Otter’s secret deal with the oil companies to turn Highway 12 into an industrial corridor on the way to the Alberta tar sand pits.
Already reeling from the massive Jonah gas field, now a new field covering 4 times as much area is planned. The “Normally Pressured Lance” natural gas field” (Son of Jonah, as some call it) comes at a time when the formerly pristine air of the Green River Basin has wintertime air so dirty it violates the standards.
Encana project could add 3,500 gas wells in Wyo. Mead Gruver, Associated Press
The U.S. Bureau of Land Management needs to asked how new drilling of this huge magnitude can be done until the agency can be sure the residents are being protected from the activities that are already underway.
The Wyoming Outdoor Council has a story on the project too (and a map). Agency needs to protect the residents of the Upper Green River Valley. By Bruce Pendery
Oil sands of Alberta are bad enough, but they look good compared to Western oil shale. Its development will produce little, if any, net energy, while leaving much waste and giant pits. It takes a lot of water too, and the deposits are in the driest part of the United States.
BLM hearing in Salt Lake City sees much opposition to oil shale. Salt Lake Tribune. By Brandon Loomis.
Residents on Highway 12 and recreation businesses are rallying against the megaloads.
Fate of ExxonMobil megaloads at stake in Boise hearings. By John Miller. AP in the Missoulian.
An unprecedented number of comments came in on the Plains Exploration & Production Co.’s (PXP) plan for up to 136 gas wells south of Bondurant near Noble Basin. Most of the Wyoming and adjacent Salt River Range has been withdrawn from oil and gas leasing/drilling by act of Congress, but the PXP leases slipped through before the leasing was shut down by the Wyoming Range Legacy Act.
My experience in the Noble Basin and adjacent area is of some of the finest elk and moose country in Wyoming. A domestic sheep beleagered bighorn sheep herd is nearby. The huge number of comments seem to have strengthened the views of new Wyoming governor Matt Mead on the subject of drilling, after maybe fracking the area.
Wyoming Range drilling project garners 40,000 comments. By Environment & Energy Daily in WyoFile.
We haven’t covered this for a while, but as many predicted the movement is not going smoothly.
1 megaload reaches Lolo; 1 stuck on Highway 12. By Jamie Kelly. Missoulian.
The practice of fracking, or hydraulic fracture drilling has been a highly damaging practice wherever it is used and now Congress is asking the EPA to take a harder look.
Diesel Use in Gas Drilling Cited as Violation of Safe-Water Law.
New York Times
Having lost before the Idaho Department of Transportation, opponents of the oil megaloads will no longer try to stop the first four of them. These are bound for the existing oil refinery in Billings, Montana. The next 200 megaloads (not approved for now) are for what many see as the tar sand pits from hell in Alberta, Canada.
Movement of the first four should reveal much about who is right about them? Will the loads have great difficulty getting up the highway and over Lolo Pass? Will there be an accident? Will they be safely parked during the day, or will they end up blocking traffic? Will the megaloads harm the highway surface or warp the bridges? Will the megaloads generate any local employment beyond a few people holding signs and public revenues going to pay for highway patrol escorts?
Idaho megaload opponents: Let big rigs roll to Billings. By Kim Briggeman of Missoulian. missoulian.com
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Feb. 1, 2011 update. As Megaloads Roll, What Two of Three Plaintiffs Learned About Opposition. New West (feature article). By Steve Bunk. New West has done an outstanding job covering the megaloads issue. This is their latest feature article.
I was particularly impressed with this quote in the article, “Referring to state troopers who accompany megaloads through Idaho, Laughy remarked, ‘I find it particularly interesting that our state could be contracting out our police to the South Korean government.’ ” I say it’s a good example what happens when we (the United States) are well on our way to being a colony of the corporations of other parts of the world (thanks to the work of people like provincial governor Butch Otter).
Folks in NW Wyoming are rejoicing that the Bridger-Teton National Forest has announced the rejection of some of the last of the requested natural gas leases in the Wyoming Mountain Range 20 miles NW of Pinedale (30 miles southeast of Jackson Hole). Forest rejects oil, gas leases in Wyo. Range. “[Forest supervisor] Buchanan follows [former supervisor] Hamilton’s draft, decides against development 35 miles south of Jackson.” By Cory Hatch, Jackson Hole News and Guide.
Wyoming Range Legacy Act of 2009
The beautiful and wildlife rich mountain range’s protection from massive natural gas development has united different kinds of folks in northwestern Wyoming. In August 2009, most of the Wyoming Range and the adjacent Salt River Range (1.2 million acres) were withdrawn by Act of Congress from oil and gas development in the “Wyoming Range Legacy Act,” sponsored by most of Wyoming’s congressional delegation.
The Wyoming Range is still not entirely protected-
This does not mean the mountain range is entirely protected. Among the very first gas wells developed in the general area were in the foothills of the Wyoming Range way back in the late 1970s at Riley Ridge, which has been massively industrialized. As proposals to explore multiplied citizens organized to head off massive development of the entire mountainous area along the the Idaho/Wyoming border. Slightly less than 50,000 acres south of Bondurant slipped through — were leased — in the 1990s.
The Noble Basin drilling controversy-
Now PXP Energy wants to drill 136 wells in the area near Boundurant (referred to as the “Noble Basin” area) much to the outrage of local and non-so-local residents. At a hearing in Jackson, Wyoming last week about 98% of the testimony opposed the Noble Basin development. 1/20/11. Noble Basin sparks anger. Jackson Hole Daily. The advantage lies with PXP, however, because the act of leasing public land is the most critical stage of oil and gas development. That’s because a lease creates a private property right that can only be extinguished by purchasing it back. PXP’s drilling probably can’t be stopped by any action except public opinion or very restrictive stipulations imposed in the actual drilling.
Citizens can send their comments on regulation of the drilling to the Bridger-Teton National Forest, supervisor Jacqueline Buchanan, P.O. Box 1888, Jackson, WY 83001. Comments can be emailed to comments-intermtn-bridger-teton-big-piney@fs.fed.us with the subject line “Eagle Prospect and Noble Basin MDP DEIS.” The plan is available at http://www.fs.fed.us/r4/btnf/projects/. Comments are due Mar. 10.
Not all opposed to drilling the range-
Of course, the oil and gas industry supports drilling the area as does Wyoming’s lone member of the U.S. House, Republican Cynthia Lummis. Lummis, while nominally a U.S. Representative, in practice pretty much represents oil rather than the state.
We have posted quite a few articles on protecting the Wyoming Range, but the blog hasn’t shown much interest.
I think this might be because the very name, Wyoming Range, might prompt those not from Wyoming to think the article is about rangeland in Wyoming rather than a large chain of mountains which are full of wildlife, especially elk. The range also has a small and declining bighorn sheep herd that is constantly threatened by disease from domestic sheep grazing. Western Watersheds has been trying to improve the livestock grazing in the area through the organization’s Wyoming Office.
As some have mentioned, it might also be that the area is psychologically hidden because the Tetons, Yellowstone, and the Wind River Mountains immediately come to mind when folks think of the state of Wyoming.
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More information
Having won a hard fought battle to intervene on the decision whether to allow the first megaloads of oil equipment up Highway 12 and over Lolo Pass, the full hearing last week pitted local residents and the Boise based law firm, Advocates for the West against ConocoPhillips oil.
Steve Bunk has a lengthy article about the hearing in New West. Dec. 10
Here’s an interesting tidbit from the hearing: “It . . . was confirmed during questioning that the Conoco employees at the hearing were being paid by the company to attend in lieu of going to work. Moreover, Conoco had hired lobbyists in Washington, D.C., and for Idaho and Montana, and was placing newspaper advertisements about the loads to counteract the public outcry and interviews [intervenor’s attorney Laird] Lucas had given.”
A lot of folks thought the tremendous victory of The Wyoming Range Legacy Act signed by President Obama last year stopping new oil or gas leasing on 1.2 million acres in the Wyoming Range and Salt River Ranges put the drilling to rest, but no. 77,000 acres in the wildlife rich NW corner of the Wyoming Range had already been leased.
Because the government creates private property rights (out of public land) when it leases, to stop drilling an oil company has to give up or sell the leases. As a result a number of conservation interests are seeking to try a buy out.
Saving these mountain ranges from drilling has been an issue that generally unites conservationists of all types, including hunting groups. May this rare success continue!
Story: Groups consider drilling lease buyouts in Wyoming Range. By Mead Gruver. Associated Press.
Note: the hearing will be on Friday, Nov. 19 in Boise. The hearing will be at ITD Headquarters in Boise, 3311 W. State Street. (208) 334-8000
Advocates for the West won a brief victory Friday on behalf of local residents of Highway 12. These temporarily block the first 4 shipments (which go to Billings not Canada). They are for ConocoPhillips. Later ExxonMobil seeks to move over 200 giant shipments over the highway, which parallels the Clearwater and Lochsa Rivers, over Lolo Pass and through Montana to Alberta.
“Each of the Exxon loads would weigh 300 tons, stretch 227 feet long, reach 27 feet high and 29 feet in width – wide enough to take up both lanes of the highway. Trucks would move only at night and pull over in newly designed turnouts during the day.” Read more of this AP story by Todd Dvorak.
It has been discovered that oil companies plan to use scenic, narrow Highway 12 for at least a decade for hauling giant equipment, so this will be a continuing issue if big oil wins.
The Canadian provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan are losing sage grouse fast. So fast, that the birds may disappear entirely from the Canadian landscape.
Industry blamed for bird’s demise – Sage grouse on path to extinction – Edmonton Journal
Unrestrained gas development in southern Alberta could drive the sage grouse to extinction in this province within two years, says a University of Alberta scientist.
Mark Boyce has studied sage grouse since 1977,first in Wyoming and for the last decade in Alberta. He might be lacking a study subject soon, though. It’s estimated only 90 birds remain in the province.
This is part of what makes Obama/Salazar appear tone deaf to what occurred during the Gulf Oil Spill and I think it played a big part in people’s loss of faith in his administration and big losses seen in the Congress by Democrats. Rather than using this as an opportunity to impose real regulation on big oil they downplayed what the real implications of the spill were and, some would say, actively covered up how much oil was leaked and how much damaged was caused.
Meanwhile BP claimed big quarterly profits.
And you wonder why voters are so cynical……
Coral, Marine-Life Devastation Near BP Oil Spill Indicates Much Worse Long-Term Damage Than Feds Had Admitted.
Associated Press
Update 11/10. I read this today. . . Ralph Maughan. Oil from the BP Disaster May Remain Thick on the Seafloor. Scientific American. The sea floor is covered with what is thought to be oil topped off with something they term “slime snot.” This is probably a layer of bacteria eating the oil. My thought is, disgusting, but maybe hopeful.
It seems to me that this will not be a one time event because the passage of this huge equipment through north central Idaho and then Montana will be ongoing for many years.
Missoula demonstrators protest big rigs, fossil fuels at Exxon station. By Gwen Florio. Missoulian
Oil Sands Effort Turns on a Fight Over a Road. By Tom Zelller. New York Times.
I wish the NYT had also exposed the sellout to the oil companies by the states’ politicians.
The Missoulian reports that a subsidiary of the national oil company of Korea now wants to use scenic U.S. Highway 12 through north central Idaho and over Lolo Pass to transport numerous giant oil (tar sands) equipment to Alberta.
Despite worthless assurances about this kind of activity being a one time thing, it’s plainly obvious that as predicted the oil companies mean to make the highway along this asphalt ribbon through the wilderness an equipment hauling route.
This will slowly ruin the lives to downstream residents who have to endure these highway blockages, disrupt traffic into Montana, harm the Lochsa, and Middle Fork of the Clearwater River, and make recreational and timber cutting access into the surrounding mountains slow and difficult by requiring long alternative routes.
Third oil company looks to bring big rigs over U.S. Highway 12. By Kim Briggeman of the Missoulian.
The Lochsa River. North Central Idaho. Copyright Ralph Maughan
While Highway 12 through Idaho is just a 2-line highway, its improvement over the years (a gravel road until the 1960s) has long disrupted the lives of people. In the past it was Montana. A number of abandoned Eastern Montana towns came to their end as transport of their grain changed from the railroads to trucks going in the opposite direction down Highway 12.
Pygmy rabbit
The declining condition of the Sagebrush Sea has been highlighted on a couple of occasions over the past couple of weeks. In recent Washington state news we learned that jackrabbits in sagebrush habitats are diminishing. Pygmy rabbits were rejected ESA protections by the Obama administration last week, and earlier last year Dr. Steven Herman remorsefully described his account of the extinction of the Columbia Basin pygmy rabbit:
Science is seldom followed in these endangered species “interventions”. Politics trumps science -and conservation.
We need to remember the Columbia Basin Pygmy Rabbit as an example of a form lost in part to the the insanity of Public Grazing.
Significant threats to sagebrush habitat across the western landscape continue to threaten and diminish a variety of sagebrush obligate species.
Sagebrush habitat is among the most imperiled ecosystems in North America and the rate at which our unique western wildlife and fish communities are declining is truly alarming.
Attempting to bring the most relief in the least amount of time, environmentalists continue to push for Endangered Species Act (ESA) protections for a number of umbrella species endemic to sagebrush habitats, including the grand-master of the Sagebrush Sea: the Greater Sage grouse.
Prioritizing these “umbrella” species is important, because when successfully listed, the protections secured these species will blanket entire ecosystems positively affecting the diversity of fish, wildlife, and environmental values which share the explicitly protected individuals’ habitat. It’s like hitting a plethora of birds with one stone (bad analogy).
Ken Cole (age 11) holds pygmy rabbit
So it is with the charismatic, imperiled pygmy rabbit, North America’s tinniest bunny, and the only arboreal rabbit (climbs sagebrush) on Earth !
In 2003, a coalition of conservation groups petitioned the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) to list pygmy rabbits under the ESA.
In early 2008, the USFWS, responding to legal pressure from conservation groups, finally issued a positive 90-day finding for pygmy rabbits, initiating a more thorough assessment of whether to protect the bunny under the ESA.
The agency dragged its feet again, prompting Western Watersheds Project et al to provide a legal reminder, again, of its court ordered obligation to the bunny …
“We find there has been some loss and degradation of pygmy rabbit habitat range-wide, but not to the magnitude that constitutes a significant threat to the species,” Bob Williams, supervisor of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Nevada, said in a statement.
Big Fuel Spill from Rig on U.S. 12. By George Prentice. Boise Weekly.
Tanker crashes and spills fuel along US Highway 12. Associated Press
Will this possible disaster (the oil hasn’t yet run into the river) influence the Idaho Supreme Court’s decision whether to overturn the injunction by 2nd District Judge John Bradbury to halt the oversized loads of massive tar sands equipment bound for Alberta?
The tar sand pits have been called the world’s greatest on-going environmental disaster. Many are fingering the pits as the cause of hideously deformed fish showing up downstream.
Mutant fish lead to calls for Ottawa to monitor oil sands. Bob Weber. Edmonton — The Canadian Press. “The fish are hard to look at.”
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New blog. Dirty Oil Sands
DeFazio says tar sands over-sized shipments cost all American taxpayers. By Rocky Barker. Letters from the West. Idaho Statesman.
This well was in production, unlike the Deepwater Horizon, BP disaster. It tells me that major oil pollution might have become a permanent feature of the Gulf of Mexico.
Oil sheen spreading from Gulf platform explosion. By Alan Levin and Julie Schmit, USA Today
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Added Sept. 3. There was an interesting article in the NYT today on this. Mariner Rig Accident Undercuts Efforts to End Drilling Moratorium. By John Collins Rudolf. From Green, NYT’s blog about energy and the environment.
The rig was owned by Mariner Energy and it is interesting that some of their executives were busy in Houston protesting against the moratorium on new deepwater drilling. The moratorium lasts until the end of November. It also seems these folks would rather engage in political protest rather than clean up their act. Certainly a bad omen for the future.
Well, at least a delay on the oil company monopolization of U.S. Highway 12 across north central Idaho. The suit was brought by aggrieved local residents such as Peter Grubb, a guide and lodge owner on Highway 12. Advocates for the West represented the plaintiffs.
IDOT was clearly violating its own regulations in issuing these permits to the oil companies, probably under intense pressure from Governor Otter who thinks this is the route to economic improvement in the state’s pathetic economy.
Idaho judge halts wide loads on Highway 12. By Todd Dvorak. Bloomberg/Business Week
Lolo National Forest rescinds power line burial decision for big rig route. By Kim Briggeman. Missoulian
(opinion) Put the brakes on massive trucks on the U.S. 12 corridor in N. Idaho. Pete Zimowsky. Idaho Statesman. Link fixed
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My view.
Butch Otter thinks this is the way to perk up Idaho’s feeble economy. Is closing down Highway 12 the way to do it?
Am I going to visit the Selway, Lochsa, or Lolo this year? Not to spend a day stuck behind oil equipment moving at 5 mph.
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More on July 26. Idaho, Montana Groups Challenge Oil Equipment Transport. By Associated Press.
Gulf Awash In 27,000 Abandoned Oil And Gas Wells. By Jeff Donn and Mitch Weiss. Associated Press (reproduced in the Huffington Post)
I think many Americans are trying to ignore this ongoing disaster, but it will continue. Findings like this say hundreds or thousands of smaller leaks are likely.
This didn’t just begin in the Bush Administration, but the Bush/Cheney Administration thoroughly corrupted the leasing and oversight of oil and gas. Then Obama’s Salazar didn’t fix it, though he promised when speaking on his first day as Secretary of Interior.
This from the Missoulian. Gulf oil spill threatens birds migrating south from Montana. By Rob Chaney
It seems like the Texas coast is the most important for migrating birds from Montana.
Plans are being made to try to quickly create some artificial wetlands to attract wintering birds.
Alternate habitats for migrating birds considered. By Amy Wold Advocate (Louisiana) staff writer
Clean the Gulf, Clean House, Clean Their Clock. By Frank Rick. New York Times.
The President asked us to pray. So I ask God that the President fire Ken Salazar.
The President says he would have “fired Tony Hayward, BP’s chief executive” (currently yachting in the Irish Sea). We all would fire Hayward, but we can’t. The President can fire the man who did not clean up MMS after calling it his number one priority.
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Related. A yachting trip? The 10 worst BP gaffes in Gulf oil spill. Christian Science Monitor. By Mark Sappenfield, Staff writer.
Related. BP oil disaster: How much oil is left?. Christian Science Monitor.
Unfortunately, it is well over 90%. Associated Press
Of course, this is all at the cost of another huge insult to the planet as well as the northern Rockies.
One of the things that few seem to understand is that the worst environmental degradation comes from exploiting marginal (actually submarginal) resources. Drilling in deep water, polar regions, and production of energy from sources where net energy (actual new energy) is relatively small such as tar sands, show a very depleted resource and a horrible future.
As oil gushes in Gulf, eyes are on sands to north in Alberta. By Kim Briggeman of the Missoulian
Methane gas (natural gas) is what caused the explosion. Natural gas not only profoundly depletes oxygen in the ocean at this concentration, it is also a much stronger greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. I have to wonder if a gas emission of this magnitude is a climate changer. Some alternative theories of global warming suggest that sudden oceanic emissions of methane are what really brought on abrupt global warming.
Gulf oil full of methane, adding new concerns. By Matthew Brown. Associated Press.
More bad news about the Utah “oil spill.”
Oil spotted in Great Salt Lake wetlands. By Judy Fahys. The Salt Lake Tribune
Clinton-Era Secretary Blasts Interior; Scientists Say Salazar Should Quit featured in the New York Times
The Gulf Coast disaster is a cataclysmic failure. It’s a failure of insatiable industrial greed. But to leave it at that – to blame BP and demand accountability of BP alone – is too narrow. It keeps the reigns of control in the hands of the private actors who ought no longer be trusted, and it ignores the fact that the environment in which private industry’s over-step of influence took place was only made possible by a failure of our representatives to clean shop. There’s a systemic problem.
Read the rest of this entry »
Stop Alberta oil expansion. Guest column by Tom Woodbury. Western Watersheds Project. Montana Office.
It’s bad news for Idaho and Montana highways, but much more for Montana the world at large.
The corrupt and discredited Minerals Management Service (MMS) both regulates and collects royalties from off-shore oil and gas. Inland, the BLM does the same, and that agency is full of problems too. You have to wonder if Salazar has been on the job correcting the BLM’s decline through the Dick Cheney years?
Oil and gas disasters are possible in Wyoming, New Mexico, Montana, etc. A hydrogen sulfide (that’s the very lethal rotten egg gas) blowout from natural gas wells, natural gas explosions, massive river pollution affecting the critical Green and Colorado Rivers are all possible.
This article in the Casper Star Tribune looks at it a bit from the view of conservationists but even more from the Wyoming oil industry. Diemer True (True Oil Company), who is quoted several times at the end of the article is one of the most powerful people in Wyoming.
Is a political overreaction to the oil gusher really possible with the oil and gas industry so well placed at the national, state and, in many places, local level? Or is it more likely nearly impossible to do anything of lasting consequence in the face of such political power?
Gulf disaster stirs worries in Rockies. By Dustin Bleizeffer. Star-Tribune energy reporter. Casper Star Tribune.
A revealing article in Rolling Stone points out how Obama and Salazar did nothing to reform the well known corruption at MMS. It is expected that industry will try to cut as many corners as possible but the culture at the Department of Interior’s Minerals Management Service did nothing to curb the corruption of gas and oil companies and instead facilitated the current destruction of the Gulf of Mexico.
“Bush owns eight years of the mess,” says Rep. Darrell Issa, a Republican from California. “But after more than a year on the job, Salazar owns it too.”
Essentially, what the Senator is saying is that the pipe leading down to the oil may be leaking. The oil isn’t just leaking from the pipe at the top but that it may be leaking into the ground from lower and there may be no way to stop it except through a relief well which isn’t expected to be done until August.
BP Well Bore And Casing Integrity May Be Blown, Says Florida’s Sen. Nelson.
Emptywheel
Promoters of turning Idaho’s Northwest Passage Scenic Byway and All-American Road into an industrial truck route for gargantuan loads argue that currently planned and pending ConocoPhillips and Imperial Oil/ExxonMobil Canada mega-load shipments are a “one-off deal;” a one time event. Actually, the ExxonMobil Canada shipments alone number 207, and for successive 15+ minute segments, will close the highway to all traffic five nights a week for an estimated 9 months. But the truth about the oil companies’ intentions lies well beyond those 207 loads……
• The Port of Lewiston, both on their website and in grant applications for port expansion with taxpayer money, states, “If one oil company is successful with this alternative transportation route, many other companies will follow their lead.”
• The CEO of Sungjin Geotec, the Korean company that manufactured the 207 ExxonMobil Canada modules, told a Korean news agency his company expects to receive future orders for additional modules from Imperial Oil/ExxonMobil Canada totaling $1.5 billion. The 207 loads now scheduled for U. S. 12 cost $250 million, suggesting that $1.5 billion would pay for about 1200 modules. The Edmonton Journal of Alberta, Canada, recently reported that a Sungjin representative in Calgary confirmed that his company expects to build hundreds of additional modules.
I think perhaps there has been too much attention in this forum on elk in Lolo. Elk are important, but fishing, scenery, wilderness, and property of local people are more important. U.S.Highway 12 is one of Idaho’s most scenic highways. It goes through scenic canyon and between wild country following the Clearwater River, then the Lochsa River up and over Lolo Pass into Montana.
The exploitation of Alberta’s tar sands are well known as perhaps the single most environmentally destructive project on the planet (at least until the Deepwater Horizon blowout in the Gulf of Mexico). Now that destruction has spread to Idaho and Montana with these massive loads which require “improving” Highway 12 and other highways in Montana.
Some of the good folks in Missoula are fed up with oil company damages and protested. Protest rally. By Rob Chaney. Missoulian.
We will be following this more from now on.
BP oil spill could spread to Atlantic Ocean. Christian Science Monitor.
This comes amid predictions that the gusher won’t be stopped until relief wells intersect the oil reservoir in August. Even then, relief wells sometimes fail to work.
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Update June 4. BP finally captures some oil from leaking well. MSNBC
Update June 4. Scientists Warn Oil May Spread Up Atlantic Coast (good graphics and video). AP/Huffington Post
“Cody Coyote” has commented here numerous times about the importance of several Wyoming politicos in the scandal ridden performance of MMS under George W. Bush. Many were chosen by Dick Cheney.
Now WyoFile has a detailed article on these people and their maneuvering. Before Deepwater Horizon Disaster – Wyomingites Had Key Roles in MMS. By Rone Tempest. WyoFile
This isn’t the first time TNC has faced controversy over ties to big energy.
Over the years TNC has been accused of “greenwashing” because of their ties to big energy companies. Of course they claim that the relationships have been productive ones that help conserve more land but their ties to BP are really hurting them now. In my opinion their record is a mixed bag. Some of the places they have been able to protect are really important but, in the West, they often continue to graze livestock on many lands even though the lands are not suitable for it.
Here is an older story about how The Nature Conservancy got into trouble with big energy, there are many others during this period as well: How a Bid to Save a Species Came to Grief. Washington Post, 2003.
Nature Conservancy faces potential backlash from ties with BP.
By Joe Stephens – Washington Post
Gulf Oil Spill: Oil Has Entered Loop Current, Officials Say. Associated Press. So, some of the oil is now off to Florida and maybe even to the East Coast. So far the main part of the oil remains north of the power Loop current. How long will this hold?
Getting oil out of marshes where it does the most damage is much harder than off the beaches. Unfortunately, the heavy black stuff is now going into the marshes. They will soon yellow and die. Will the Oil Kill the Bayou? By Steven Gray. Time Magazine.
BP says it is capturing 5,000 barrels of oil a day from gulf spill. By Juliet Eilperin and Steven Mufson. Washington Post Staff Writers
The leak started 30 days ago, oil as thick as paint is washing up on the shores of Louisiana and there are plumes of oil deep underwater poisoning the ocean and threatening the Florida Keys and the east coast. There have been many attempts to stop the leak and it appears that it won’t be capped for a long time to come. This disaster is killing all kinds of wildlife and will change the whole ecology of the Gulf as well as its economy for many, many years if not longer. Knowing that the consequences of a spill like this are so disastrous why was the Deepwater Horizon given a categorical exclusion from environmental analysis under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA)?
Under NEPA there are basically 3 levels of review a project can undergo. First, NEPA requires that an agency determine if the project is covered under NEPA, if it is not then the project is given a categorical exclusion. Second, if the project is covered under NEPA, the agency must determine whether it would have any significant environmental effects, if it doesn’t then the project is issued a Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) and an Environmental Assessment (EA) is prepared. Finally, if there are significant impacts then an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) must be prepared.
Although the first article below has a somewhat pessimistic tone, this certainly seems better than the current trend in boreal Canada. There is more value to the vast boreal forest than caribou.
Caribou still at risk under historic forestry deal. Industry, environmentalists band together for sustainability. By Hanneke Brooymans, edmontonjournal.com
-Ducks Unlimited is plenty happy. DU celebrates boreal wetlands protection announcement. Vital wetland systems in Canada’s Boreal Forest conserved.
This pact will not stop the biggest threat in the area, the open pit mining of “tar sands,” conversion of which into synthetic oil is tremendously polluting and has relatively poor net energy efficiency.
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*Methane, CH4, is a much more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide, CO2
Interior official who oversees offshore drilling for MMS resigns.
Washington Post
A lot of energy has been expended to try to make natural gas look “green”. In fact many “green” groups and others are touting it as the “bridge fuel to a 21st-century energy economy” and claim that it is “cleaner” than coal. Well, it turns out that it may not be so “green” after-all.
When you consider that natural gas is composed primarily of methane and that leaks are common it doesn’t look so good. Methane traps 21 times more heat in the atmosphere than CO2. Is it worse than coal, maybe or maybe not, but it isn’t “green” and it is responsible for devastating much of southwest Wyoming and parts of Colorado.
Natural Gas May Be Worse for the Planet than Coal
A preliminary analysis suggests that natural gas could contribute far more to global warming than previously thought.
By Kevin Bullis
Jim Groth, an appointee of Governor Jim Gibbons, published a declaration which calls for turning the State of Nevada into an energy colony and he doesn’t think it should be subject to National Environmental Policy Act requirements.
“The greatest thing holding Nevada back from achieving economic success right now is the need to satisfy onerous policies or laws and have the ‘right’ paperwork in order,” Groth writes in his “declaration.”
Nevada has become the latest target of energy producers and transmitters of all stripes. Gigantic solar and wind plants as well as geothermal plants have been proposed on public lands. El Paso Corp’s Ruby Pipeline has received preliminary permission to pass through northern Nevada’s most pristine sage grouse and pygmy rabbit habitat. There are also a number of proposed transmission lines to support these developments.
Public lands are not a renewable resource and the kind of development proposed in Nevada will have devastating impacts on wildlife there. It is time to make a major push towards rooftop solar and conservation rather than these centralized power plants on public lands which require transmission lines that lose power getting the electricity to where it is used.
Energy chief stuns environmentalists with renewable energy approach.
Las Vegas Sun
C’mon, how big is the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, really? USA Today.
Interior Department opening Colorado’s North Park to gas and oil drilling. By Bruce Finley. The Denver Post
I can already see that “we” are going to get blamed for the Gulf of Mexico oil fountain. Now we learn that “we” want to sacrifice North Park.
This seems odd. I wasn’t one of those “drill baby drill” people, and I don’t know any of them. It seems to me the phrase was invented by political organizers designed to be spread from the top down.
In the article above, certified genius Dr. Patty Limerick had this to say “Given our energy habits, and given our inability to change them, we have to go forward with this,” said Patty Limerick, director of the University of Colorado’s Center of the American West, who recently hosted BLM leaders at a forum and is preparing a report to guide conservation initiatives.”
I’ve heard this noted historian speak several times. This is typical. She tends to blame the masses (us). Maybe she should read Howard Zinn’s, A People History of the United States.”
Defenders of Wildlife launches petition drive to stop Discovery Communications from launching a Palin-hosted wildlife show.
I don’t know, maybe she could show us the way to clean oil off birds and turtles, or maybe a recipe for shrimp substitutes?
Wildlife group targets Discovery with anti-Sarah Palin ad campaign. Los Angeles Times.
Ken Salazar, Secretary of Interior
The chemical dispersants BP is dumping in the Gulf of Mexico are a cosmetic solution only. And they’re toxic.
By Joseph Romm.
Salon Magazine.
AND MORE MALFEASANCE
U.S. exempted BP’s Gulf of Mexico drilling from environmental impact study. By Juliet Eilperin. Washington Post Staff Writer.
The Department of Interior did not require an environmental impact statement on the lease at Deepwater Horizon. Only a CE (categorical exclusion) was done. This is the kind of analysis, or rather lack of it, done for constructing short fences, or repairing a government campground.
The CE was issued on April 6, 2009.
The oil gusher will last into the hurricane season, and at some point it is likely to drift into the Gulf of Mexico’s Loop Current which will take it out of the Gulf, onto Florida’s east cost and up the Eastern Seaboard of the United States.
Story: Could oil slick hitch a ride out of Gulf of Mexico? By Andrew Freeman. The Washington Post.
Although this Administration is not responsible for this huge oil leak, it highlights their boneheaded policy of greatly expanded off-shore drilling. It looks like this could be almost as bad as the 1989 Alaska catastrophe with the Exxon Valdez . . . and the petroleum keeps leaking out of the wrecked bottom of the oil platform. It could take 90 days to stop the leak!
The oil is now just offshore. It will hit a wildlife management area first!
4/30. As oil spill hits Louisiana coast, critics assail Obama’s offshore drilling plan. By Steven Mufson and Michael D. Shear. Washington Post Staff Writer
4/30. New. Gulf Coast oil spill could eclipse Exxon Valdez. Video. By Cain Burdeau And Holbrook Mohr. Washington Post.l
4/30. Update. Video. Oil reaches the coast.
Gulf oil spill could hit Louisiana coast Thursday night. By Steven Mufson. Washington Post.
Growing Gulf of Mexico oil leak called spill of ‘national significance’. Greenspace in the Los Angeles Times.
Oil Execs Called To Testify Before Congress On Gulf Coast Spill, Consumer Pricing. Huffington Post.
The slick as seen from space. NPR
Gulf oil spill and BP profits. Dallas Morning Tribune blog. By Todd Robertson. And I thought BP referred to “beyond petroleum”. Now they tell me it has always been British Petroleum. grrrrr!
Wind power is not a popular thing in Wyoming for some and very popular for others. It is very unpopular for advocates for sage grouse and other birds.
Wind resistance.
High Country News
For some time here, we have arguing against giant, new centralized power plants whether of “alternative” or traditional energy. This means that few nukes, giant wind farms, coal plants, or space-consuming solar farms are needed.
I would have missed this. I’m glad Rocky Barker was alert following Northwest Power and Conservation Council’s new plan. Northwest can meet most energy needs with conservation, council says. By Rocky Barker. Idaho Statesman.
Jim Yost, one of Idaho’s two council members (and a strong corporate conservative) said “Everything we add to the system costs five to 10 times the resources we are using today,” Yost said. By this I takes it to mean the marginal cost of new generated power is 500 to 1000% the average cost of existing power.
I have been worried about this for years, and posted many articles. Every month is seemed a new, massive environmentally destructive scheme was proposed for the North Fork.
Now British Columbia Lt. Gov. Steven Point says the North Fork Flathead River drainage will be off limits to mining and energy extraction in a speech to the B.C. Parliament. Let’s hope the details don’t have loopholes.
British Columbia declares Canadian North Fork off limits to mining, energy development. By Rob Chaney. Missoulian
New article added on 2-11-2010. British Columbia Bans Mining, Drilling in Flathead River Valley. Environment News Service. This article gives additional information efforts to further protect area, something that was raised in the comments.
Photos (with locations)
http://www.panoramio.com/photo/14392571
http://www.panoramio.com/photo/14315354
http://www.panoramio.com/photo/14422009
http://www.panoramio.com/photo/14511373
http://www.panoramio.com/photo/14392898
http://www.panoramio.com/photo/14393086
http://www.panoramio.com/photo/14415878
http://www.panoramio.com/photo/15215649
http://www.panoramio.com/photo/15216233
1.2 million acres were protected in 2009 in the Omnibus Public Land Bill’s “Wyoming Range Legacy Act”. If you have never visited the Wyoming Range, it might be worth your while to drop another trip to the Tetons and head south a bit.
Conservationists, sportsmen agree with plan. Bridger-Teton wants no drilling on 44,000 acres. By Cory Hatch. Jackson Hole News and Guide.
In typical single-minded engineering mentality, this pipeline will be built cross-country with little regard for anything else.
Reno Gazette-Journal on the Ruby Pipeline. By Susan Voyles.
This pipeline is one reason why Western Watersheds giant sage-grouse lawsuit is so important.
Well good for the Secretary of Interior!
I don’t watch much television, but when I do, I’m amazed at the number of ads energy companies are producing. I’d bet 90% of the population believes that “BP” stands for beyond petroleum, not the company’s actual name — British Petroleum.
Interior Chief Slams Oil and Gas Groups’ ‘Election-Year Politics’. By Noelle Straub. Greenwire in the New York Times.
– – – –
I am adding it to my blogroll. RM
Tim DeChristopher’s brave disruption of the December 2008 oil and gas lease auction in Utah has resulted in a new decision by the new Secretary of Interior. Politicians and groups are characterizing it in differing fashions according to their political party and interest.
I’d call the decision mixed.
Interior boss says no to drilling on 8 Utah parcels. Auction fallout » Salazar vows to develop oil, gas ‘the right way.’ By Patty Henetz And Thomas Burr. The Salt Lake Tribune
Update. LA Times story on Salazar’s decision. Few Bush-era energy leases are valid, report finds. By Nicholas Riccardi
To many Americans, Canada is still the “great white north” where multitudes of wildlife live in wilderness and “tree huggers” silly enough to want to see a bear or a wolf can go a see one behind almost every tree.
The reality is massive development, and especially in Alberta which has become essentially a petro-state.
Alberta’s government seems to sort of be moving toward more protection such as a permanent cancellation of the annual grizzly bear hunt against the strong resistance of some hunting groups.
A recent 5-year study that included most of Alberta (not its far north or Jasper and Banff*) using the most effect method — DNA analysis of bear fur — found only 581 bears. They had expected about a thousand. This is fewer than Montana’s grizzly population in and around Glacier National Park and adjacent Wilderness areas and backcountry.
The Alberta grizzly might be put on the Canadian threatened species list.
Here are a couple stories from the last few days.
While many think of these two national parks as a stronghold of the grizzly, there are not large populations there because their rugged nature means most of the Parks are not good bear habitat. Moreover, the biologically production areas are often filled with highways, towns, resorts, and railroads.
Although the oilsands massive pollution has been posted on this blog before, including a video, the magnitude of pollution is amazing. If current trends continue, according the article below, in eleven years they will produce as much greenhouse gas as all the world’s volcanoes.
Oilsands’ emissions surpass some countries. By Mary Jo Laforest. The Canadian Press. Globe and Mail.
This time, environmentalists are angered with Obama’s choice for Office of Surface Mining Reclamation, and Enforcement.
Enviros Blast Obama’s Choice for Office of Surface Mining – ENS
For the past 17 years Pizarchik has been engaged in Pennsylvania’s mining program, first as legal counsel and then as the director of the Bureau of Mining and Reclamation.
During his tenure at Pennsylvania’s Bureau of Mining and Reclamation, says [Jeff] Ruch [Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility], “Pizarchik has hewn a solidly pro-industry line on topics such as acid mine drainage, subsidence from longwall mining and using mining slag as valley fill.”
This is on top of the near million acres in the Wyoming Range, Salt River Range, and Commissary Ridge recently withdrawn from leasing by Congress in the Omnibus Public Lands Act.
BLM cuts energy leasing in Wyoming Range. By Cory Hatch, Jackson Hole Daily.
Exxon-Mobil pleads guilty in bird case – Casper Star-Tribune
Exxon-Mobil Corp. has pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Denver to violating the federal Migratory Bird Treaty Act in five states including Wyoming during the past five years, the Justice Department said Thursday.
United Nations Will Study Threats to Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park. By Dan Testa, Flathead Beacon (in New West)
The effort to protect Montana’s Rocky Mountain Front from natural gas development has been and continues to be pretty successful. These oil, gas leases along the Front were the work of two NGOs, The Coalition to Protect the Rocky Mountain Front and Trout Unlimited.
The leases were bought from Donald Curry of Curry & Thornton of Ft. Worth, Texas.
This is very important grizzly bear habitat and deer, elk and moose spring, fall and winter range.
Leases Retired. By Karl Puckett. Great Falls Tribune Staff Writer
More on this. Added July 8, 2009. New lease arrangement advances preservation of Front. Great Falls Tribune.
Enviros cheer, critics jeer report on ‘flawed’ oil leases. Bishop » Utah congressman calls it “crap,” Bennett is conciliatory. By Thomas Burr.
The Salt Lake Tribune.
From my perspective this dust-up turned out very well. 🙂
New on June. 13, 2008. Drilling decisions. Report shows flawed BLM process. Salt Lake Tribune Editorial
Wazoo (Washington State University in Pullman) has a common reading program every year for freshmen. This is a growing practice at universities, but Michael Pollan’s look at how our food is produced in an unsustainable manner (oil and corn) seems to have been too controversial for the appropriation scrapped university.
I suspect we are going to here less and less social and political analysis from our universities because it offends state legislators and Boards of Reagents who hold the purse strings in a time of economic crisis.
WSU balks at book critical of agribusiness. “Washington State University has decided to halt a common reading program for incoming freshman that would have used a book critical of agribusiness”. By The Associated Press
Prosecutor is afraid of a jury. By Patty Henetz. The Salt Lake Tribune
Update May 13: The Salt Lake Tribune publishes an important Editorial on the recent news: Saving sage grouse :
A funny-looking bird that fluffs its feathers to dance an elaborate mating rite just might be able to accomplish what well-funded environmental groups have been struggling to do for decades: bring about regional protection of vast swaths of Western lands.[…]
[…]In protecting the sage grouse, we protect ourselves and the scenic wonders we treasure from the headlong rush to extract more fossil fuels, to pollute our air, and to mar our most fragile landscapes with excessive ATV traffic.
The Guardian is running Todd Dvorak’s piece on WWP’s recent successful argument in federal court to keep its West-wide comprehensive litigation in one courtroom :
Judge rejects splitting up suit over Western bird – Guardian vi AP
The New York Times ran a clip of the piece as well .
This ambitious case is a big deal and promises to be a headache for Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, whose promise to clean up Interior is being tested by the suit in a manner that moves beyond photo-ops and talking-points.
Will Salazar do the right thing for Western public landscapes and wildlife for real ?
Drilling off Alaska can’t proceed without further environmental review. By James Oliphant and Kim Murphy. LA Times.
An off-shore oil spill into the Arctic Ocean would be a terrible disaster.
Conservationists decry ranching impact on sage grouse populations. By Scott Sonner. Associated Press Writer
Needless to say, this is no small piece of litigation.
Scope of litigation - map © Advocates for the West & Conservation Geography
Thanks to Advocates for the West for permission to use the map. Read the rest of this entry »
Auction saboteur gets letter demanding $81K. The U.S. Attorney’s Office and BLM deny responsibility. By Patty Henet. The Salt Lake Tribune.
Why did he get this letter? Who wrote it.? It seems odd.
Story: Officials will remove oil from two massive storage tanks near the base of erupting Mount Redoubt. CNN.
Earlier on this blog: Palin & Chevron; Spill Disaster in the Making
Bogus bidder: BLM auction monkey-wrencher faces two felonies. Drilling . U. student hoped for mercy from Obama’s team, but no luck. By Patty Henetz. The Salt Lake Tribune.
Added 4/4/2009. Did DeChristopher’s outspokenness seal his fate? By Patty Henetz. The Salt Lake Tribune.
Is prosecution Salazar’s way of telling critics, “don’t mess with us?”
Palin & Chevron; Spill Disaster in the Making. Shannyn Moore. Just a girl from Homer. Huffington Post.
Ms. Moore asks a good question: “Why is there 6 million gallons of crude oil just sitting at the base of a live volcano? Currently, 6 million gallons of Alaska crude oil wait at the base of a volcano that has puked, spewed and gone half mad 19 times in the last 8 days.”
– – – – –
ed. note: the last time Mt. Redoubt erupted the oil terminal was almost taken out. They built a dike around it later. So far it has held. Pretty reassuring!
There was much rejoicing as the President signed the Omnibus Public Lands Bill, usually and incorrectly called the giant new “wilderness bill.”
It does add 2-million acres to the National Wilderness Preservation System, but it does many other things, including protect 1.2 million acres of the Salt River Range, Wyoming Range, and Commissary Ridge areas in Western Wyoming from oil and gas leasing (and hence drilling). These areas will not be managed as Wilderness, although as a result of the bill, large parts of them will remain roadless. Drilling in these scenic, but unstable, wildlife rich areas would cause immense devastation. They still suffer from excessive livestock grazing.
The bill also designates new Wild and Scenic Rivers, including the first in dry Utah, where building dams on rivers has been a tradition. To win support for the bill, money was provided to study the rebuilding of the Teton Dam in Eastern Idaho, which failed catastrophically in 1976 when it was first being filled after a long fight with conservation groups who predicted it would not hold water. I should note that fighting this dam was my first major conservation issue.
There are 500,000 of new official Wilderness in Idaho and 316 miles of wild and scenic rivers included in the larger Owyhee Canyonlands bill. This bill has sparked conflict among conservation groups, not because it designates Wilderness, but because it also releases to livestock development a number of roadless areas, plus other provisions. I have heard that the bill did undergo some improvement in the U.S. Senate when it was “cleaned up” by Committee Staff.
Salazar is drilling home renewables’ new power.By Michael Riley. The Denver Post
Endangered or threatened? Feds review pocket gopher protection request
Casper Star Tribune
By Mark Jaffe – The Denver Post
Legislator takes aim at feds and ‘eco-terrorists’
By Bob Bernick Jr.
Deseret News
Interior Secretary Cancels Leases on Federal Land in Utah. Bush Administration Had Opened 110,000 Acres Near Pristine Areas to Energy Exploration.By Juliet Eilperin.Washington Post Staff Writer.
April Clauson reported this in a comment earlier. Above is the full story.
– – – – – –
This is sale the brave University of Utah student disrupted. See below.
Scrapped Utah drilling-lease sale thrills Redford, monkey-wrencher. On hold » While actor, U. activist cheer, industry laments Salazar’s decision to shelve auction of 77 redrock sites.
By Patty Henetz. The Salt Lake Tribune
DEQ issues ozone alert for Pinedale. By Jeff Gearino. Casper Star Tribune.
Will a natural disaster trigger an oil spill disaster? We don’t know because of lingering secrecy from the Bush Administration.
Story: “Drift River Oil Terminal sits in harm’s way of volcano. SECRECY: Citing homeland security, officials give out little information about the plant’s status.” By Tom Kizzia. Anchorage Daily News.
Environmentalists setting up anti-oilsands training camp in Calgary. By Kelly Cryderman, Canwest News Service
For more information, here is the blog “Oil Sands Watch.” It has interesting information like “Oil Sands Development Could Claim More Than 160 Million Boreal Birds.”
Bishop spurns oilsands development. Roman Catholic leader wants environmental concerns addressed; industry welcomes debate. Edmonton Journal.
Photo Courtesy USFWS
The Columbia Basin pygmy rabbit has been listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act but efforts to restore the bunny have been unsuccesful. Even efforts at maintaining as much of the Columbia Basin ancestory/gene by interbreeding with Idaho pygmy rabbits are not looking good.
Last-ditch effort to save pygmy rabbits near an end – Wenatchee Work Online
Pygmy rabbits are very timid animals, not prone to travel large distances or cross open spaces without cover from predators. Fragmentation and manipulation of habitat associated with development, livestock grazing, and other activities that degrade the thick old-growth sagebrush pygmy rabbits need to survive is largely responsible for the imperilment of the rabbits.
Update – Dr. Steve Herman explains some history :
11th-Hour Court Order Blocks Oil and Gas Leases in Utah. By Felicity Barranger. New York Times.
A temporary restraining has order stopped the winning bidders from the Dec. 19 lease sale from taking possession of tens of 110,000 acres of federal land in scenic red rock canyon country of Utah. The temporary order will last several weeks.
– – – – –
It looks like President Obama will call for a new era of responsibility on the part of citizens. It looks like folks in the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, and the brave student Tim DeChristopher, have a jump on this. Hopefully the BLM bureaucrats will come out of the cave of fear they have been forced into and help bring us out of the dark we have suffered in almost every corner of the public lands.
DeChristopher hopes to run out the clock
By Patty Henetz. The Salt Lake Tribune
There is also a legal defense fund
Story in the Salt Lake Tribune. Auction fallout. U. student doesn’t want to be a martyr; federal probe continues. By Patty Henetz
I got this address for the fund from a comment in the Salt Lake Tribune. It hasn’t been verified.
Center for Water Advocacy, PO Box 331, Moab, UT 84532.
– – – – – –
More. Grijalva, other members of Congress ask Obama to undue BLM’s last minute oil and gas lease sale in Utah. by Abrahm Lustgarten. ProPublica
A lot of the Bush administrations last ditch efforts are going to have to be stopped in court.
Redford, Conservationists Seek Injunction to Stop Utah Lease Sales – ENS
These are beautiful places and it is good to see big names galvanize to stop the leases – let’s hope there’s enough public sentiment to take similar action on some of the lesser known landscapes as well.
_________
12-20-2008 Update: Imposter disrupts lease sale bids. By Patty Henetz. Salt Lake Tribune.
I don’t think anything like this has happened before. The enviro false bidder might have invalidated Kempthorne/Bush’s last minute fire sale of public land leases. This whole thing raises the question as to whether anything about this sale was legal or anyone really guilty given the political and probably illegal nature of the entire last minute process. Ralph Maughan
There’s less oil-shale in Utah than they thought – still a lot, but that doesn’t mean much, it’s not a viable energy option taking more energy to bring to market than it contributes to the market.
Utah downgrades its oil-shale estimates – Salt Lake Tribute
Added Dec. 14.
Imagine if President Bush, on his last day in office, invited his friends to lift the Lincoln portrait from the White House Dining Room, take the 18th- century furniture from the Map Room and — for good measure — poison the Rose Garden on the way out.
Read the rest about Bush’s last minute looting below.
Oil lays waste to the West. The greed, speed and scale of development in wild lands is an open wound on America. By Terry Tempest Williams. Opinion. Los Angeles Times. December 7, 2008.
– – – – –
My comment.
The lease sale set for Oct. 19 has now excluded a few parcels next to national parks, but again it is tokenism in a giveaway of your national heritage to the oil and gas companies. If these sell, they can’t be reversed by a new administration.
To be given to the gas and oil companies. Copyright Ralph Maughan
Bureau of Land Management didn’t alert agency to drilling bids near national park. By Patty Henetz. The Salt Lake Tribune.
U.S. to Open Public Land Near Parks for Drilling. By Felicity Barranger. New York Times.
The sales are set for Dec. 19. The BLM refuses to move the date back (of course, because Bush would not be in office). If you have ever been to Arches National Park, or Canyonlands National Park or any of the backcountry adjacent to Moab, Utah, you’ll know how awful this would be.
– – – –
Added later. It gets worse. Bush officials plan to dial back environmental protections. By Renee Schoof. McClatchy Newspapers.
This popular bill to keep the drilling rigs out of the steep, unstable, scenic Wyoming Range, south of Jackson Hole has stalled due to the election campaign.
It looks like there’s going to be a lame duck session of Congress. Harry Reid says he may add this bill and also the “Craig Thomas Snake Headwaters Legacy Act,” to add 387 miles of rivers and streams in the Snake River drainage to the national Wild and Scenic Rivers System, to an omnibus public lands bill.
These bills are sponsored by Wyoming’s Republican senators, two very conservative men. The leading opponents have been the natural gas drilling interests and Senator Larry Craig (who doens’t want protection for the Snake River, which flows into Idaho).
Senators may hear energy, river bills. By Noah Brenner, Jackson Hole News and Guide.
This New West article with great photos describes floating the beautiful North Fork of the Flathead from its origin in British Columbia downstream to the US border??
I linked to it because I was just there in BC to investigate, and a lot is unsaid in the article.
The North Fork of the Flathead is often described as the wildest of the 3 forks of the Flathead. It isn’t, although it is very beautiful. The Middle Fork of the Flathead in Montana is completely contained inside of designated Wildernesses or roadless areas.
The North Fork, however, is completely unprotected. A number of timber sales can be seen on nearby, and especially more distant slopes, and a number of dirt or gravel roads penetrate the area, leading to the poor and deteriorating road along the North Fork itself.
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