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Energy Development

Oil and Gas Drilling Links

Thompson Divide Coalition Release Video Plea About Drilling Threats

WRA is working with the Thompson Divide Coalition to protect a spectacular Colorado landscape from being devoured by oil and gas development. Federal agencies issues thousands of acres of leases when nobody was watching, and without asking how drilling could transform the rural character and habitat values of these headwaters streams and forested hillsides. These lands are worthy of legislative protection. Take a moment to watch the video.

WRA Hammers Categorical Exclusions, Gets Change From Feds

Drilling rig

A loophole in federal permitting of oil and gas drilling operations, known as a categorical exlusion, is being closed due to pressure exherted by Western Resource Advocates and other conservation groups. Categorical exclusions allowed permits for drilling to be issued while sidestepping federal protocols that ensure safe drilling practices and shutting out public involvement. The BLM has now suspended the practice of issuing permits through this method.

The categorical exclusion loophole was opened by the 2005 Energy Policy Act (EPAct) to expedite drilling on federal property and on offshore leases. The General Accounting Office studied the use of this practice and found that use of this mechanism has been out of compliance with the law, and in certain cases it was used wantonly and abusively.

Thousands of drilling permits issued under categorical exclusion led to unhealthy air quality, devastated wildlife habitat, atmospheric haze that obsured visibility and other environmental damage. Areas near Farmington, New Mexico and Pinedale, Wyoming were among the most severely affected. The drilling permit for the ill-fated Deepwater Horizon drilling rig off the coast of Louisiana that caused what has become the largest oil spill in U.S. history was approved by way of a categorical exclusion. Read the letter to the BLM requesting that the agency suspend the use of CXs.

WRA Continues to Protect Special Places from Oil and Gas Leasing


In 2009, WRA worked to pull 216,134 acres of federal lands from BLM oil and gas auctions that are inappropriate for drilling activity. The acreage spared from leasing is a fraction of the acreage that has been leased by the BLM this year. Over 5.25 million acres of federal lands have been leased for oil and gas drilling in Colorado alone. Yet 70% of that currently leased acreage remains unused.

Parcels of federal land put up for lease auctions are not necessarily known to have any proven resources. These parcels are nominated for auctions by the companies wishing to bid on these lands.

WRA works to protect special places from lease auctions where drilling is incompatible with other resource values such as wildlife, critical watersheds, essential habitat for rare and endangered species, and to prevent fragmentation of critical migration corridors. Preserving these values are important to people too, and that preservation is important for economic, recreational, aesthetic and social reasons as well.

So far this year, WRA has intervened on lease auctions of the following special Colorado lands:

"Rural Impact: What To Expect From the Gas Industry"


In a nation with a vast hunger for cheap energy, it can be difficlut to understand what the concerns are with gas drilling on public and private lands. This six part video series, "Rural Impact: What to Expect from the Gas Industry", clearly explains the many problems associated with a very dirty extraction process for what many Americans are led to believe is a very clean energy source.

Watch Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6.

WRA Ensures Public Participation in the Face of Oil and Gas Development in Great Salt Lake


On behalf of Friends of Great Salt Lake and others, WRA brokered a settlement resolving a challenge to the leasing of 178,000 acres of the bed of Great Salt Lake for oil and gas development. Under the agreement, the vast majority of the parcels were withdrawn from leasing until the Division of State Lands revises its Great Salt Lake Mineral Leasing Plan. To decide whether to lease or not, State Lands will have to balance the protection of navigation, fish and wildlife habitat, aquatic beauty, public recreation, and water quality against the economic necessity or justification for the oil and gas development.

WRA is committed to protecting Great Salt Lake because it provides crucial habitat for 257 bird species. At least 33 species of shorebirds representing 2 to 5 million birds use Great Salt Lake annually. In addition, up to 5 million waterfowl migrate through the Lake each year, stopping along routes that take them as far away as Central and South America. Indeed, approximately 30 percent of the waterfowl migrating along the Pacific Flyway depend upon the Great Salt Lake wetlands. For these birds, the Lake provides a critical food supply, allowing them fuel up for the rest of their migrations, sometimes doubling their body weight before they leave.

Because the bed of Great Salt Lake is sovereign land, held in trust for the citizens of Utah, WRA argued that the State had failed to determine whether the leasing would jeopardize the public good. After long negotiations, the parties resolved the case in a settlement touted by both sides, in the editorial pages, and as a significant victory for anyone concerned about the Great Salt Lake and its complex and fragile ecosystem. The settlement suspends leases on more than 116,000 acres of Great Salt Lake and promises a complete analysis of the potential development impacts. Going forward, the public will be involved at every stage and will ultimately determine if any benefits from oil and gas development will outweigh costs to Great Salt Lake recreation and ecological values.

The conservation groups also reserved the right to challenge any development proposed for the remaining 55,000 acres of Great Salt Lake still subject to lease, and we will keep WRA members informed as this process evolves. For now, we are pleased that we have been able to suspend a large part of the proposed development and ensure public participation in protecting the Lake.

Oil and Gas Links

Drilling


Hydraulic Fracturing - "Fracing"



Advocacy Regarding Drilling Issues



Videos on Drilling


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