WASHINGTON — Sen. Ken Salazar plans to offer a bill today that would ensure revenue from a key site on the Roan Plateau is returned to Colorado — a bill very similar to legislation he refused to back last year.
Salazar, a Democrat, wants a portion of money from the oil and gas leases on the former Navy Oil Shale Reserve to go to Garfield and Rio Blanco counties, the communities most affected by the drilling.
That’s one difference between his bill and the one offered last year by Sen. Wayne Allard, a Republican, said Salazar spokesman Cody Wertz.
“We wanted to make sure the West Slope communities got some of the funds to use for local needs,” Wertz said.
Allard also wanted the money to help Western Slope communities but didn’t specify which ones in his bill.
Lease revenue from the site goes to a fund created by Congress to pay for cleanup of the Anvil Points Research Facility in Rifle.
The cleanup is expected to cost about $20 million, but the fund already has $86 million in it, and it is growing by $1.5 million each month.
Both Salazar’s and Allard’s bills sought to ensure that half the money left after cleanup costs is returned to Colorado.
Salazar’s refusal to back Allard’s legislation last year caused tension between the two, with Allard saying the money was at risk because of Salazar’s position.
Salazar “doesn’t like any idea on the Roan unless he’s the father of the bill,” Allard spokesman Steve Wymer said.
Meanwhile, the Interior Department’s 2009 budget proposes withdrawing nearly $25 million from the fund.
In a separate matter Wednesday, Democrats in Colorado’s congressional delegation moved to block the Bush administration from permanently reducing the state’s share of revenue generated from all oil and gas drilling on federal land from 50 percent to 48 percent.
