There are environmentally friendly ways to develop natural gas, but they don’t seem to be much used in southwestern Wyoming.
Many residents of the state’s Upper Green River Basin are alarmed about the pace of energy development – and about whether they have any say in it. Those concerns are shared in communities throughout the Rocky Mountains, as the federal government pushes to open more public lands to energy development but seems deaf to public input.
Wyoming holds trillions of cubic feet of natural gas, so energy companies understandably want to tap the reserves as national demand for – and the price of – natural gas rises. Some 3,000 wells have been drilled in the Upper Green River Basin, and gas companies want up to 10,000 more in a broad swath that extends from Pinedale to Big Piney – an area roughly the size of metro Denver’s seven counties. Such frenetic development shouldn’t come at the price of hurting wildlife, recreation, agriculture or water and air quality.
When the U.S. Bureau of Land Management began approving new drilling in the area about five years ago, it said energy companies had to safeguard the basin’s huge wildlife herds, which are part of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. Pronghorn antelope, for instance, travel hundreds of miles in the autumn from Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks, into rugged lands near Pinedale, and then to winter grazing near Rock Springs – the longest North American mammal migration outside of Alaska.
The BLM first required energy companies to avoid harming wildlife habitat but since has waived many of the requirements – without seeking public input. In 2002, the BLM granted all 96 industry requests to discard rules protecting sage grouse and approved 81 percent of industry pleas to loosen safeguards for mule deer, the Casper Star-Tribune has reported.
This spring, the BLM sought public comment on new drilling in the Jonah Field near Big Piney. To file comments electronically, citizens had to link through the BLM’s national website if they didn’t know the agency’s e-mail address. The site went down April 8 and stayed down through the April 12 comment deadline, making it nearly impossible for citizens to file last-minute comments. Still, the BLM refused to extend the deadline. (The agency is accepting new public input only about air quality – because citizens h0wled about its refusal to look at potential air pollution problems earlier.)
It’s not just the BLM that’s the problem. Last week, the U.S. Forest Service said it will permit drilling on 69 square miles of the Bridger-Teton National Forest south of Jackson, but it won’t update environmental studies or seek public input.
The government has failed to deliver on past assurances that it would pay attention to the wishes of local communities. It’s time for land managers to do a better job of listening.
