DENVER-
Hoping to build on initiatives from the Democratic-controlled Congress and Western governors, several conservation groups have released a clean-energy manifesto that includes tougher environmental regulations and axing parts of the 2005 energy bill.
Nearly 30 groups from the region are calling on Congress to repeal exemptions for the oil and gas industry from water-quality and environmental reviews and a mandate speeding up approval of permits for drilling on federal land.
“As we develop our domestic fossil fuel sources, we need to do it right,” said Elise Jones, executive director of the Colorado Environmental Coalition. “Our water supply, wildlife, public health, wild landscapes—all of those are very important to the Western Economy.”
Jones said she believes this week’s release of the “2007 Western Energy Agenda” by conservation groups is timely because of the planned congressional hearings on energy development.
Western lawmakers and governors, including Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter, are promoting the region as a center of “new energy economy” based on wind and solar power, fuel from crops and “clean coal” technology. Ritter and other governors took their message to Washington earlier this week during the National Governors Association winter meeting.
While the Rockies are the site of a growing number of solar and wind power projects, they’re also at the heart of a natural gas drilling boom. Thousands of new wells have been drilled and thousands more are in the works.
Evan Dreyer, Ritter’s spokesman, said the governor is reviewing the conservationists’ agenda.
“In general, some of the concepts and principles outlined in the agenda are in keeping with the governor’s beliefs on protecting water and keeping special places special and bringing balance to the overall conversation about our energy future,” Dreyer said.
Marc Smith, executive director of the Independent Petroleum Association of Mountain States, said he agrees that balance is important. That includes balancing supply with rising demand for energy, he added.
“We absolutely will sit down with anybody about how we build a bridge to the renewable energy future,” Smith said. “But I don’t agree that we need to knock down the existing footbridge before we begin construction on the new bridge.”
The conservation groups, which include several regional chapters of the National Wildlife Federation, The Wilderness Society, the Wyoming Outdoor Council and Western Resource Advocates, advocate eliminating the requirement that the Bureau of Land Management act on applications for drilling permits on federal land within 30 days.
The requirement was adopted in response to energy companies’ complaints about long waits and the Bush administration’s push for more domestic energy production.
“Pressuring the BLM to take quick action on permits hamstrings its ability to thoroughly review permits and protect other resources,” according to conservation groups.
The groups also want Congress to repeal the exemption of hydraulic fracturing from the federal Clean Water Act. The process injects gels or, in some cases, solvents at high pressure to crack open underground rock or sand formations and make it easier to draw the oil and gas.
The groups are also seeking to protect such Western landmarks as Colorado’s Roan Plateau, Wyoming’s Red Desert and New Mexico’s Otero Mesa from energy development. They also want BLM to require companies to minimize the impacts on wildlife and the Environmental Protection Agency not to exempt some areas and projects from environmental review.
“The political landscape has shifted,” Jones of the Colorado Environmental Coalition said. “There’s interest in having greater oversight in what’s happening.”
Smith said the members of the trade group he heads want to be good neighbors and are concerned about the communities they work in.
“I think there’s a lot of negative sentiment toward big oil,” Smith said. “But most of the companies looking for oil and natural gas are not big oil. They’re independent companies and local, homegrown companies.”
