GLENWOOD SPRINGS – — A closed-door meeting in Vernal, Utah, in late March where commissioners from several counties in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming discussed a unified position regarding oil shale development continues to raise questions.
“We are a bit concerned about the real purpose of this meeting and believe that open meetings laws should apply,” Matthew Garrington, deputy director of the Colorado-based Checks & Balances Project informed Garfield County commissioners on Monday.
He said the Vernal meeting, which produced a joint statement to the U.S. Bureau of Land Management on its oil shale leasing program evaluation, has been described by some of the participating counties as a legal strategy session, and by others as a political strategy session.
However, Garfield County commissioners have claimed that the meeting was purely informational, at least so far as the local commissioners’ involvement was concerned.
In a letter handed to the commissioners on Monday, Garrington further stated: “I find it disturbing that there is such a high level of disagreement as to the nature of a closed-door meeting, especially a meeting involving a quorum of Garfield County commissioners, [and] private companies with a vested economic interest in the outcome of this issue.”
Read more at:
