Three members of Colorado’s congressional delegation said Tuesday that they intend to make parts of Gov. Bill Ritter’s proposal on how to handle drilling on the Roan Plateau into federal law.
The legislation, announced by Sen. Ken Salazar and Rep. John Salazar at a news conference and also backed by Rep. Mark Udall, would funnel tens of millions of extra dollars to local governments in northwest Colorado to deal with the impact of oil and gas development.
“The Roan Plateau is a very, very special place,” Sen. Salazar said. “It is the mule deer, the elk, the fish in the streams and the anglers and hunters and tourists who come every year to visit.”
The proposal is the latest by the Colorado Democrats to try to preserve large portions of the Roan in the face of the state’s oil and gas boom. Previous efforts to bar surface drilling atop the plateau and to impose a one-year moratorium on drilling both failed in Congress.
Ritter’s proposal would add 15,000 more acres — to a total of 36,000 acres — into wildlife protection zones. But it stops well short of protecting the entire 127,000-acre plateau, some of which is already owned or leased by energy companies.
“If this is the best we can do, I think it’s a good compromise,” Rep. Salazar said. “We call it a win.”
Greg Schnacke, the president and chief executive of Golden-based Americans for American Energy, which backs drilling on the Roan, said he cautiously welcomes the new proposal.
“Of course, the devil will be in the details of this bill,” he said in a statement. “It is possible that these guys will try to do a bait and switch by writing their bill so that no natural gas harvest can actually occur.”
The proposed legislation would also funnel millions more to Colorado communities in two ways. First, it would overturn a recent decision to give the federal government a greater share of lease revenues from drilling on federal land.
Second, the legislation would free up surplus money currently sitting in a trust fund devoted to cleaning up a portion of the Roan. Sen. Salazar said the trust fund has at least a $40 million surplus, but under current laws that money can’t be tapped until the cleanup is certified complete.
John Ingold: 303-954-1068 or jingold@denverpost.com
