After four years of studying energy policy in college, I got used to hearing bad news. Catastrophes from droughts to rolling blackouts were everyday discussion topics. When I heard about the Exxon oil disaster in Yellowstone last month, I hardly batted an eye.
But it’s taken me only a short time in the “real world” to discover that there is also good news on the energy front. Over the past year, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar has made common-sense changes to the oil and gas leasing process that have created more certainty for the industry and incorporated public input into managing taxpayer-owned lands.
Taxpayers own 8.3 million acres of land in Colorado that is managed by the Bureau of Land Management. We also own 27 million acres of minerals, located beneath private, public, state and federally owned lands.
Under the old system, oil companies simply told the government where they wanted to drill, and the minerals at the site would most often be offered for lease without adequate public input or an environmental assessment. Salazar said the old system “ran afoul of communities, carved up the landscape, and fueled costly conflicts that created uncertainty for investors and industry.”
The broken system prioritized oil company speculation above the safety of our air, water, wildlife and public health. Communities and private landowners across Colorado lost valuable economic opportunities. In 2006, the BLM proposed to lease 40 acres on the shore of Elkhead Reservoir — the city of Craig’s backup water supply — where the city had invested in a recreation facility.
The public could only offer feedback by filing official protests. Since diverse groups like hunters, ranchers, local governments, conservation groups and private landowners are all interested in using public lands, this created a costly legal quagmire with thousands of protests each year, which the BLM didn’t have the resources to process.
The oil and gas industry and conservation groups were stuck in limbo — sometimes for years — waiting for protests to be resolved. Then, last May, Salazar announced reforms that prioritize balanced planning and public input early in the process.
Since members of the public now have the opportunity to provide input before leasing decisions are made, the number of protests has declined dramatically. Rocky Mountain Wild, where I interned this summer, went from protesting nearly every parcel offered for leasing to protesting just two of the 19 parcels initially proposed for last week’s lease sale.
Another mark of the reform’s success is that Colorado is producing more oil and gas than ever before. In the first quarter of 2011, Colorado produced 357 billion cubic feet of natural gas, enough to heat every house in Colorado for an entire winter month and well over the record amount produced in the same period in 2008.
The changes also help restore balance to Western lands by creating master leasing plans. In areas where there is significant industry interest in future development, but also potential conflicts with other interests, officials can work with the oil and gas industry, local leaders and the public to develop a plan that balances development with local economic and recreational priorities.
The changes are a “win-win-win” for the government, the industry and the public. With fewer protests, we save time and taxpayer money, and the industry has more certainty. Local economies, which rely on a delicate balance of the recreational and oil and gas industries, benefit because lands conserved for recreation and hunting have greater long-term impacts than the short-term impacts of oil and gas development.
Taking a smart, balanced approach to managing public lands is essential to our quality of life and economic future in the West.
My grandfather used to take me to the ranch on Grand Mesa where his grandfather homesteaded. I chose to study energy policy because I want to be able to share the beauty and power of the endless sagebrush mesas with my own grandchildren.
Thanks to common-sense leadership that recognizes the need for balanced management of our public lands, that seems a lot more likely.
Joel Minor (joelminor@gmail. com) graduated this year from Colorado College and will attend Stanford Law School in the fall. He was member of the 2006 Colorado Voices panel.
