- Why so much turnover in mayor's office?
- Hearing on the Ruby Hill towers
- Let freedom ring
- Promoting socialized medicine
- Immigration Laws or Lack Thereof
- Atheist Diversionary Tactics
- The "Melting Pot" is unique to America
- Many mighty hearts covering the world
- Roan Drilling Bad for Colorado, country
- Americans entitled to universal health care
Roan Drilling Bad for Colorado, country
This Speakout has not been edited
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“Do we have to destroy every beautiful place?” asks Keith Goddard, owner of Magnum Outfitters of Rifle, who depends on the Roan Plateau for his income and way of life. A wild Roan Plateau attracts the hunters, anglers and photographers he ushers across the plateau, and he knows those people won’t come when the roar of big trucks and the bright lights of drill rigs destroy the night. “Who’s going to pay me $2,500 to $3,000 to see a bunch of roads and gas wells?” Goddard asks.[1] A recent poll of 400 likely voters in Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District (represented by John Salazar) showed 72% support for prohibiting drilling on the public lands atop the Plateau. This support was strong across party affiliations. There is also strong support for restrictions on drilling among the outdoorsmen of the district. Among hunters, 69% support restrictions on additional drilling.
Support is even stronger among fishermen (74%) and hikers and campers (74%).[2]
Recent studies in the booming coal-bed methane fields of Montana and Wyoming indicate energy development is driving away mule deer from their historic grounds. “We’ve seen a 40 percent decline in deer populations close to energy activity,” David Stallings of Trout Unlimited’s Public Lands Initiative said. “That also means loss of hunting opportunity.” An earlier report from the BLM estimated the Roan Plateau deer herd could decrease by 36 percent because of energy development.[3] And it surely will be, because the area is also the No. 1 County in the state for drilling permits, with more than 1,700 wells permitted in 2006 alone.
Another 15,000 to 20,000 new wells are expected to be drilled during the next decade.
To some, that may sound like a good idea, but we cannot drill our way to energy independence.
Sixty-five percent of the world’s known oil reserves are in the Persian Gulf; the United States has only 3 percent, but we account for 26 percent of the world demand.[4] It’s simple math and common sense. Drilling the Roan Plateau will not do us any good in the long run.
Foreign oil and gas imports will continue to go up because U.S. production peaked 35 years ago and has been declining ever since. Accelerated drilling — as opposed to conservation and developing alternative energy sources — only beholdens us to Middle Eastern dictators and tyrants.
But until our leaders realize that it’s impossible to drill our way to energy independence, until they recognize that drilling in our national treasures destroys the very things that make this country worth cherishing and defending, and until they see that the only way to reduce foreign oil dependence is to raise fuel economy in cars and embrace alternative energy, the fight will never really be over.
[2]John Anzalone and Jeff Liszt. “Summary of Polling Results in Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District.” Anzalone Liszt Research: 5/9/07
[3]Dave Buchanan. “‘Environmentally sound’ drilling?” The [Grand Junction] Daily Sentinel: 7/25/06
[4]John H. Adams. “Oil-Fueled Foreign Policy.” Onearth: Spring 2003, p.4
So it is OK for you and your clients to trek all over the Roan for your profit. But not OK for the rest of us to get the benefits of our natural resources? Correct?