Standing in front of a Denver gas station sign advertising $2.95 for a gallon of regular unleaded, U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar on Thursday threw his support behind legislation that would open federal lands off Florida’s Gulf Coast to further oil and gas drilling.
Colorado should not shoulder the burden of domestic oil and gas production, Salazar said.
“The effect it will have on Colorado, it’ll help us deal with this energy crisis that we find ourselves in,” the Democrat said of the Gulf Coast drilling plan. “The $3 a gallon that we’re seeing in gas stations around the state of Colorado is indicative of what’s happened with (an) energy problem that’s gotten out of control the last several years.”
With the Senate in recess this week, Salazar returned to Denver and held a press conference at the corner of Grant Street and Speer Boulevard to talk about the need for speedy domestic gas and oil production.
The offshore drilling bill, sponsored by Senate Energy Committee Chairman Pete Domenici, R-N.M., would open up about 3.6 million acres in Lease-Sale Area 181, a section of the Gulf of Mexico near Florida that holds an estimated 930 million barrels of oil and 6 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, according to recent estimates by the Minerals Management Service.
Proponents say the added production would ease rising energy prices. But Florida officials along with many environmental groups oppose the bill and are determined to block further oil drilling near the Sunshine State’s coastline. The legislation is expected to be debated on the Senate floor later this month.
“We should always remind ourselves that Colorado should not be the sacrificed zone for the United States of America as we develop our oil and gas resources,” Salazar said. “We have about 3.4 million acres of public lands in Colorado today subject to oil and gas leasing. We have almost 30,000 oil and gas wells that have been drilled and are in production across the state of Colorado. The state of Colorado is seeing very significant impacts.”
Colorado environmentalists are not convinced by Salazar’s notion that more offshore drilling would reduce the impact of energy development on the Western Slope.
“We certainly support the senator’s efforts to ensure that western Colorado communities’ clean air and water quality aren’t damaged in the rush to process oil shale,” said Elise Jones, executive director of the Colorado Environmental Coalition. “(But) I’m suspicious of the notion that drilling more off the coast will mean drilling less in Colorado. I think the way it would work is that they’ve been doing a land grab in Colorado, they’ll just do an ocean grab off the coast of Florida and drill both.”
Salazar also spoke Thursday about the immigration debate unfolding in the Colorado legislature. He said state lawmakers should “send a message to Washington, D.C., that we need to complete the work that we started. The Senate passed comprehensive immigration reform, (and) the president has spoken about the need for comprehensive immigration reform.”
Staff writer Manny Gonzales can be reached at 303-820-1537 or mgonzales@denverpost.com.
