DENVER—The withdrawal of roughly 57,000 acres from a federal oil and gas lease sale in Colorado provides a chance to thoroughly review the potential impacts of energy development on communities and wildlife already under pressure, say state and local officials who sought the time-out.
The U.S. Bureau of Land Management is taking the proposed leases off the block in its Nov. 8 auction in Denver while still putting 129,726 acres up for bid.
The decision to yank the parcels from the auction followed a request from the state Division of Wildlife to postpone action on land in the heart of greater sage grouse habitat and formal protests from western Colorado communities and conservationists. The parcels could be offered at later auctions.
“We’re pleased that our comments assisted the BLM in making the deferral decision,” Division of Wildlife spokesman Randy Hampton said Wednesday.
Granby Mayor Ted Wang said he welcomes BLM’s move and hopes the agency will sit down with residents and elected officials to discuss energy development proposed on federal land in the area.
“We aren’t necessarily against this flat out,” Wang said. “There just needs to be input and some discussion.”
The BLM withdrew proposed oil and gas leases on 31,078 acres in Grand County in west-central Colorado after the county, Granby and other communities filed protests, raising concerns about potential environmental and economic impacts.
Some of the parcels are on federal land while others are split estate: the surface is owned by someone else and the federal government owns the minerals underneath. Companies that lease the minerals have the right to reasonable access to the surface to extract the oil or gas.
Most of the leases are for natural gas. Colorado is experiencing record gas drilling rates.
Wang and other elected officials complained that the BLM didn’t notify them before putting the land up for lease.
“We acknowledge that, with little federal oil and gas leasing in Grand County in recent years, all parties involved will benefit from additional discussion and outreach on the federal oil and gas leasing process,” said Lynn Rust, Colorado BLM deputy director.
The BLM also deferred action on 25,948 acres in Jackson County, Grand County’s neighbor to the northwest. The Colorado Division of Wildlife has said the North Park area in west-central Colorado, site of some of the withdrawn leases, is “one of the most substantial greater sage grouse core areas.”
“Overall, it actually looks like a pretty good reprieve for the greater sage grouse,” said Josh Pollock of the Denver-based Center for Native Ecosystems, which protested some of the leases.
Pollock, though, said he is worried that leases in sage grouse habitat still being offered won’t adequately protect the birds. The leases say conditions may be imposed to protect sage grouse, but there are legal limits to what BLM can require once a lease is approved, Pollock said.
Key habitat for other wildlife, including prairie dogs, Gunnison sage grouse and the Colorado pikeminnow, on the federal endangered species list, is among the land up for lease in November, Pollock said.
Division of Wildlife spokesman Hampton said the state agency remains concerned about proposed leases in Moffat County that lie in a major migration route for some of the nation’s largest deer and elk herds.
