Colorado will begin receiving $1.3 million monthly from energy leases on part of Roan Plateau, plus revenue from new leases atop the mesa, the Bush administration said Friday.
But how much the state will get out of a pot of about $112 million from earlier drilling remained in limbo.
Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne has certified that the government has enough money to clean up Anvil Points Research Facility in Rifle. That triggers a payment to Colorado of 49 percent of $2.7 million in monthly lease proceeds there. The state also will get 49 percent of revenue from new Roan Plateau leases the BLM plans to sell beginning Aug. 14.
The Interior Department and the two U.S. senators from Colorado disagree, however, about what should happen to money from existing oil and gas leases at the former Navy Oil Shale Reserve. An agreement put in place when the land was transferred to the Bureau of Land Management set up a trust fund and said those leases should pay for the Anvil Points cleanup.
Sens. Wayne Allard and Ken Salazar have legislation that would give Colorado half of the fund. The cleanup costs would come out of the federal share in their bill. The Bush administration disagrees, and proposes taking $25 million of the fund. It also thinks it’s due another $39 million to reimburse the Department of Energy for work there.
