Denver (July 20, 2007) - In response to a scathing July 17th letter from Moffat County to Governor Bill Ritter criticizing his call for protecting Vermillion Basin from gas drilling, The Wilderness Society questions Moffat County's extreme claims.
"The Moffat County commissioners' inflammatory rhetoric and criticism of the governor for visiting their county does a great disservice to the ongoing public discussion over how the spectacular public lands of northwest Colorado should be managed," stated Suzanne Jones, Regional Director for The Wilderness Society's Central Rockies Office. "We are talking about the future of public lands owned by all Americans, not Moffat County."
The fate of the Vermillion Basin proposed wilderness area will be determined by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in the pending revision of the Little Snake Resource Area management plan. BLM's draft plan for the area, released in February, called for opening 93% of the area, including Vermillion Basin, to oil and gas drilling. Governor Ritter's administration recently submitted comments on the draft plan that, among other things, called for protection of Vermillion Basin, as well as better protection of sage grouse and big game habitat from drilling.
"It is entirely reasonable for Colorado's new governor to review BLM's draft plan and to re-evaluate the state's position, especially given all of the new information and science available on the damage to wildlife populations, and clean air and water from oil and gas drilling," said Jones. "Having personally participated in several years of Little Snake collaborative meetings with the county, I can state unequivocally that Moffat County's drilling proposal in no way represents a consensus proposal-it was a product of the county and the Owens administration. For Moffat County to claim otherwise in their letter is totally disingenuous."
The Wilderness Society also questions Moffat County's outrageous claim that not drilling in this proposed wilderness area would economically "cut off both of [Moffat County's] legs." There are over a million acres within the Little Snake planning area that have already been leased, most of which are not in production. "If the Moffat County commissioners are concerned about drilling revenues, they could focus on production from land that is already leased, which represents a much greater source of revenue than the Vermillion Basin," stated Dr. Michelle Haefele, a Resource Economist with The Wilderness Society in Denver. "If the already-leased lands in the Little Snake Resource Area produce gas as the County is assuming for Vermillion Basin, they will be drowning in gas revenues. There is no need to lease Vermillion Basin, the largest remaining unleased BLM roadless area in the region."
This trend of leased lands not yet in production holds true across Colorado and the Rocky Mountain West: based on BLM data from 2004, of the 3,444,060 acres leased in Colorado, 2,103,514 acres (or 61% of the total) have not been put into production. In other words, it appears that industry is stockpiling millions of acres of public land that already comprise many years of drilling. "There is simply no need to push for leasing every last wild acre of public land to the oil and gas industry," added Jones.
Furthermore, employing United Stated Geological Survey data, The Wilderness Society estimated that the potential natural gas under Vermillion Basin would meet national consumption for approximately 10 days. Compared with the potential loss of wildlife habitat, prehistoric rock art, backcountry recreation opportunities and our children's wild heritage, the value of the gas in Vermillion is small. "Towns and counties throughout the region have been experiencing devastating social and financial consequences as a result of the frenzy of oil and gas drilling," argued Haefele. "These costs must also be considered when a community contemplates a plan that accelerates such development."
The potential resource underlying Vermillion Basin represents only a small fraction of the potential oil and gas resources in the region. A Wilderness Society analysis, based on USGS data and using accepted scientific protocols, found that Vermillion Basin represents less than 5% of the technically recoverable gas resources within the Little Snake Planning Area (see attached TWS fact sheet). Furthermore, Vermillion Basin is an unexplored "wildcat" area with unproven, speculative resources-not a proven "gas reserve" as Moffat County claims. As the BLM's draft plan acknowledges, most oil and gas development (and resultant revenues) in the Little Snake planning area will come from existing fields such as Hiawatha and Powder Wash. "Because Vermillion Basin represents less than 5% of the gas resource in region, putting this spectacular landscape off limits to drilling would actually have very little impact on Moffat County's economy," stated Haefele.
"The bigger question that Colorado citizens are worrying about is how to ensure that wildlife habitat, clean water and air, and Craig and other rural communities are not sacrificed by the tsunami of oil and gas drilling that is pounding Colorado's Western Slope," noted Dr. Pete Morton, Senior Resource Economist with The Wilderness Society. "We urge Moffat County to conduct an accurate analysis of the benefits of a more balanced Little Snake management plan. Protecting big game hunting, backcountry recreation opportunities, and wild open spaces also contribute greatly to the region's economy, and oil and gas drilling threatens all of these."
"We applaud the governor for requesting that the BLM do a better job balancing oil and gas development with protection of wildlife, recreation and wilderness resources in our state," concluded Jones. "Vermillion Basin is a truly unique landscape-filled with petroglyphs, ancient relicts and breath-taking vistas-that deserves protection."
For a copy of the following TWS fact sheets, please contact Suzanne Jones (suzanne_jones@tws.org):
