WASHINGTON — Sen. Wayne Allard’s spokesman Monday lashed out at junior Sen. Ken Salazar after a provision the senior senator wanted on oil-shale revenue was omitted from a year-end spending bill.
“Sen. Salazar wins, but Colorado loses,” said Steve Wymer, spokesman for Allard, R-Colo. “I can’t remember an instance where a sitting U.S. senator affirmatively blocks an effort to bring several tens of millions of dollars to his own state because he wants to hold that money hostage to a completely separate political play.”
Allard had wanted to put language in the bill that would have directed the federal government to give Colorado its share of money for mineral extraction from the Naval Oil Shale Reserve — one of the richest areas on northwestern Colorado’s Roan Plateau — money in excess of what’s needed for cleanup of the Anvil Points Research Facility in Rifle. It’s estimated at about $30 million.
Money from the Bureau of Land Management’s Roan property is deposited into a fund created by Congress to pay for an environmental cleanup and other past costs at Anvil Points. That fund collects money raised from the oil-shale reserve, which is part of the land on the Roan controlled by the BLM.
Salazar, a Democrat, opposed Allard’s provision.
Salazar prefers to deal with the distribution of those funds in a bill that also addresses how much drilling will be allowed on the Roan Plateau and how much that drilling will cost lease-holders, said Salazar spokesman Cody Wertz.
Wertz called Wymer’s statement rhetoric. Colorado can’t get the money until cleanup of the Anvil Points site is complete, he said.
“Sen. Salazar is obviously committed to getting Colorado its fair share of revenues, but he is also committed to making sure that places like the Roan Plateau have certain protections,” Wertz said.
Allard aides have said that the money will come after cleanup certification, but it’s important to secure it now because other lawmakers are eyeing it for other purposes.
Language that would have barred surface drilling on the Roan Plateau for one year also is not in the spending bill, marking the latest failed attempt to block extraction on the 3,500-foot mesa.
A separate provision blocking for one year the issuing of new leases for oil-shale extraction on federal lands is in the omnibus spending bill.
Salazar negotiated to put that provision in the spending bill. He also wanted to include the Roan language.
Salazar now will wait for Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter to issue his plan for Roan.
