Large-scale natural gas drilling operations in the county are to blame, and now, headlines in LA have Sublette County residents thinking: “We already have that city’s smog problem. Do we want its water pollution problems too?”
In a Congressional season marked by radical anti-wilderness legislation and historic cuts to environmental programs that protect our land, water, and air, bipartisan action in the Senate seems increasingly rare.
While the hearing was mostly focused on new ways to produce 3-D maps of oil and gas reserves and advances in directional drilling, there was also discussion of the impacts that new and improving drilling technologies can have on wild landscapes, like the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
Today, we have the opportunity to improve the LWCF program so that more polluter dollars can be used to protect everything from our national parks to local playgrounds.
Both seek to open up Wilderness-quality lands – those untrammeled places protected by The Wilderness Act of 1964 – to development, mining and other destructive uses. They also attack lands deemed Inventoried Roadless Areas, which are not allowed to be developed.
The 150 million plus acres are home to thousands of species of birds, fish, and wildlife – nearly 21 million acres of these incredible landscapes are permanently protected from degradation and destruction in the National Wilderness Preservation System.
