New Roan legislation strikes a better balance, some say

Salazars, Udall introduce bill calling for phased leasing and more ACEC acreage

By Phillip Yates
Glenwood Springs Post Independent Staff
Glenwood Springs, CO Colorado
April 18, 2008

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RIFLE, Colorado — Three members of Colorado’s Congressional delegation have introduced Roan Plateau legislation that largely follows the recommendations Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter put forward for probable drilling on the Western Slope landmark.

U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo., Rep. Mark Udall, D-Eldorado Springs and Rep. John Salazar, D-Manassa, announced Thursday that their bill calls for “phased leasing” of federal mineral leases on the Roan Plateau and increasing the acreage for areas of critical environmental concern (ACEC), a special area given a higher level of protection, to 39,338 acres. Currently there are 21,034 acres designated as ACECs.
“The legislation introduced today substantially addresses the same goals reflected in the uniquely Colorado plan I proposed in December,” Ritter said Thursday. “I am confident that phased leasing will result in a more thoughtful pacing of energy development and far greater revenues to the state over time.”

In December, Ritter had pushed for the concept of phased leasing — which means auctioning a set of leases one after another over time — and sought to increase the ACECs to 36,184 acres.

However, the Bureau of Land Management did not include those requests in its second record of decision for the area.

That March decision may lead the agency to begin offering gas leases below the Roan Plateau as soon as late summer.

The BLM’s plan for the area calls for “phased development,” where all parcels would be leased at once and then the development would be phased over time with one operator working on the ground at a time.

Instead of leasing all the federal mineral leases at once — which is the BLM’s current position — the proposed Roan legislation would require the agency to lease less sensitive areas outside of cutthroat trout watersheds first, according to a joint statement from the Salazars and Udall about the proposed legislation.

The BLM would also have to consider how to maximize leasing revenues to Colorado and the federal government, while also minimizing environmental and ecological impacts as it selects areas for leasing.

“(Phased leasing) is very important because it maximizes the revenues that will come
back to the state of Colorado,” Ken Salazar said.

State officials have said that would increase what companies are willing to pay because the BLM plan calls for the development to occur in stages and companies
are unlikely to pay a lot of money for leases they can’t develop for a while.

Can the bill pass?
John Salazar said he, Ken Salazar and Udall will work as hard as they can to find a “vehicle to move this legislation forward.” Those “vehicles” could include appropriations and budgetary supplemental bills.

“Right now we are laying down this marker, saying this is what the governor wants to do, this is what the Colorado delegation wants to do,” John Salazar said.

Ken Salazar said he was hopeful that Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo., will “come on board with this legislation” and that it would be easier for the legislation to move forward with his support.

Steve Wymer, a spokesman for Allard, said the Salazars and Udall did not seek input from Allard’s office before they introduced the bill on Thursday. He did say, however, “there’s a lot of pieces to this bill that are acceptable.”

“We are disappointed that we were not involved with this from the beginning,” Wymer said. “There are just a lot of missed opportunities here for collaboration. We feel like we are brought in for the crash landing and not the takeoff. There are issues that are now prohibitive to supporting the bill that we possibly could have worked out.”

The future of the Roan Plateau has set off a wave of criticism between energy and environmental groups over how much money Colorado can receive from gas leases and royalties there, and how much natural gas is actually beneath the area.

An estimated nine trillion cubic feet of recoverable natural gas is under federal lands in the Roan area, and it is estimated that federal revenue from oil and gas royalties and gas sales could generate about $857 million to $1.13 billion, according to the BLM. Colorado would receive an estimated $428 to $565 million in money generated from oil and gas extraction on the Roan.

The immediate feedback
Doug Hock, a spokesman for EnCana Oil & Gas (USA), said the company applauded Ken Salazar for recognizing that energy development and preservation of wildlife can co-exist.

“We agree that there is a better way for the Roan than what is currently prescribed in the (BLM’s) record of decision, and one that can generate greater revenue for the state of Colorado, while protecting critical habitat and reducing our environmental footprint,” Hock said.

Hock said that the company supports phased development rather than phased leasing of the Roan Plateau because the gas fields below the surface are not evenly distributed.

“Leasing it in a piecemeal fashion could be problematic,” Hock said.

The Roan bill is going to cost “Colorado a billion of dollars in lost royalty and lease
revenues,” said Greg Schnacke, president and CEO of Americans for American Energy, a Golden-based group that supports drilling on the plateau.

“The bill is going to effectively delay the leasing of the area well into next year,” Schnacke said. “It is clearly the intention of the sponsors that a new administration will pull its support (for leasing federal mineral parcels on the Roan) completely.”
A small divide between conservation groups

The bill has seemed to create a small disagreement in groups that have worked to
protect the Roan Plateau from gas drilling. Sportsmen for the Roan Plateau released
a statement saying while the legislation is not perfect, it would “do much to protect important fish and wildlife habitat” atop the plateau.

“We continue to believe the outstanding resources on the Roan deserve full
protection,” said Dave Nickum, executive director of Colorado Trout Unlimited, which
is a part of the Sportsmen for the Roan Plateau. “We support this bill as an important
step forward in protecting key habitat on the Roan, including native cutthroat
watersheds, and we thank the sponsors for their hard work.”

But Clare Bastable, conservation director for the Colorado Mountain Club, said her group and several other organizations, such as the Wilderness Society and the Colorado Environmental Coalition, are opposed to the bill.

Bastable said that while the Roan bill is better than the BLM and Ritter’s plans for the area, the introduced bill doesn’t go far enough in protecting the area from potential large-scale drilling.

“This legislation in a lot of ways is another drilling plan for the Roan Plateau,” said Bastable, adding while some groups are taking separate stances on the bill, they are all working toward to protect the landmark. “I think the Bush administration has been hell-bent on drilling the Roan Plateau and that has skewed the debate toward drilling.

“It has left (the Salazars and Udall) with little latitude in which to work. I can see why
they introduced the bill they introduced, but ultimately this bill may result in hundreds if not thousands of wells on the Roan Plateau.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report
Contact Phillip Yates: 384-9117
pyates@postindependent.com


Post Independent, Glenwood Springs, Colorado CO