The big rush to drill -Energy firms already have wide access
By: Dusty Horwitt
Denver Post
November 6, 2005
There's a big push by the oil and gas industries and their political allies to reduce public oversight and roll back protections for wildlife in order to increase energy production in the West.
For decades, the industry has complained that it is locked out of Western public lands that could free America from dependence on foreign oil.
"We've taken large chunks of the country and put it off limits to any kind of exploration or development," Vice President Dick Cheney, a former oilman, told a town hall meeting in Arkansas last year. "Large parts of the Rocky Mountain West are off limits."
Government data tell a far different story: Oil and gas companies have enjoyed widespread access to public lands but have produced precious little energy to show for it.
Over the last two years, Environmental Working Group has analyzed millions of records from the Bureau of Land Management, the agency that oversees oil and gas leasing on public lands, and the Minerals Management Service, the agency that tracks the amount of oil and gas produced.
From 1982 to 2004, oil and gas companies had access to 229 million acres of Western public land - an area larger than Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona combined. But from 1989 to 2003, these companies produced from these lands just 53 days' worth of U.S. oil consumption and 221 days of natural gas.
In Colorado, between 1982 and 2004, oil and gas companies had access to 15.8 million acres of public land - about one-fourth of the entire state. But from 1989 to 2003, they produced enough oil to power the country for one day, and enough gas for less than two weeks.
Energy independence? Hardly. In 1982, 28 percent of U.S. oil consumption was foreign oil. In 2004, it was 58 percent. In 1982, 5 percent of U.S. natural gas use came from foreign sources. In 2004, it was 15 percent.
The numbers show clearly that that the current drilling boom in the West will not move us closer to energy independence. Nor will it provide many jobs or long-term economic stability. Drilling has become mechanized, so hiring needs are relatively small. Highly skilled, mobile workers from other states take many of the jobs and take their money home when the work is done.
The boom-and-bust nature of drilling is well-known to longtime Colorado residents. Perpetuating this cycle only benefits oil and gas speculators as it stifles more reasoned long-term development strategies.
And increased drilling can threaten our most treasured places with water contamination and air pollution.
The Environmental Working Group plotted almost 3.5 million oil and gas leases and mining claims and found that industry controls land inside, or within 5 miles, of 69 percent of the West's national parks, wilderness areas and other natural treasures. At the rate the Bush administration is granting new leases and registering new claims, within 20 years industry will actively drill, mine or otherwise control public lands inside or within 5 miles of every national park and wilderness area in the region.
At particular risk from unchecked drilling are ranchers and other landowners who hold so-called "split estate" land, where the owner holds the surface rights but the government has the mineral rights. In these situations, landowners generally cannot prevent drilling and can do little to determine how or where drilling occurs, even when faced with severe impacts to their own businesses and property.
Between 1982 and 2004, the government leased or offered to the oil and gas industry 47.5 million acres of split estate land, including 4.4 million acres in Colorado. Several states, including Colorado, have recently considered bills protecting the owners of millions of acres of land from the impacts of federal drilling leases, but only Wyoming's passed into law.
In June, the BLM surprised state officials with a letter contending that Wyoming's law did not apply to federal mineral estates, leaving the law's future in doubt.
There is a place in the Rocky Mountain West for responsible oil and gas drilling. But there is even greater need for a federal energy policy that focuses on energy efficiency and renewable energy, instead of jeopardizing our irreplaceable natural treasures for a minuscule amount of energy that moves us no closer to energy independence.
Dusty Horwitt is an analyst for the Environmental Working Group in Washington, D.C.
