BOULDER, Colo., Sept. 29 (UPI) -- Part 2 of 4. The greatest impact of Bush administration's energy policies calling for increased oil and gas production from U.S. sources will not be on the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, but on the vast acreage of the American West.
By accelerating leasing on western public lands, the administration will decide the fate of those lands for many years to come.
Most of the land affected by the leasing proposals are under the jurisdiction of the Department of Interior's Bureau of Land Management. BLM controls the fate of 291 million acres of federal property, an area equivalent in size roughly to all of New England plus every Atlantic coastal state from New York to Florida.
Most of this land is acreage early western settlers did not want, and its primary use to date has been cattle grazing. In some cases, BLM also manages the mineral rights underlying lands where the surface is privately owned.
The greatest potential for hydrocarbon development in the West is not oil, but natural gas. In introducing his national energy plan in May 2001, President George W. Bush said, "Our ability to develop gas resources has been hampered by restrictions on natural gas exploration."
Not exactly. Nearly all of BLM's lands either have been leased in the past or have been available for leasing. In Wyoming, for instance -- half of whose area is owned by the federal government -- 15.3 million acres of a total of 18 million BLM acres is available for leasing.
A recent report by the Environmental Working Group found, "Despite access to more than 200 million acres of public land over the past 15 years (1989-2003), the oil and gas industry has produced enough energy from this land to satisfy only 53 days of U.S. oil consumption and 221 days of natural gas consumption."
A federal report prepared in the wake of the Bush energy plan examined five basins in the West:
-- the Paradox/San Juan Basin in Colorado, Utah and New Mexico;
-- the Uinta/Piceance Basins in Colorado and Utah;
-- the Green River Basin in Wyoming, Colorado and Utah;
-- the Powder River Basin in Montana and Wyoming, and
-- Montana's Thrust Belt.
These basins total 104 million acres, 59 million acres of which is federally managed. The report found only about 20 million acres currently are off limits to leasing.
Another report, prepared by the Wilderness Society, said: "Nationally, the oil and gas industry has leased about 42 million acres of public land managed by the BLM. ... Nearly 73 percent of that land is not in production."
Bill Bush, a spokesman for the American Petroleum Institute, told United Press International: "The nation's energy needs are growing. It is projected that we will be needing more oil and gas in the future than we do today. And by leasing additional lands, we'll be able to produce more oil and gas."
Not all of the leased areas can be developed, Bill Bush continued. "There are environmental restrictions, or a lack of resource potential," he said. "The fact that there are areas already leased doesn't mean that we shouldn't continue to look for better prospects and lease new areas."
The chief environmental issue associated with this land rush is that oil and gas competes with another scarce commodity valued by a large number of people -- relatively untrammeled wilderness.
Environmentalists are loath to admit it, but most of America's prime wilderness lands already have been designated as such -- primarily in the national forests. BLM has completed several inventories of its lands and found acreage deemed suitable for inclusion in the national wilderness system. The Bush administration's leasing plans would eliminate them from such consideration -- permanently.
In 2003, Interior Secretary Gale Norton lifted interim protection on 600,000 acres of potential wilderness lands in Colorado. BLM then leased five parcels that had been included in permanent wilderness proposals by Rep. Diana DeGette, D-Colo.
In Utah, of the nearly 1.5 million acres proposed for wilderness in the Red Rock Wilderness Act, nearly 1 million will be leased for hydrocarbons under the Bush plan.
In Wyoming, 100,000 acres in the Bridger-Teton National forest recently have been proposed for oil and gas development, including popular hiking trails in the southern edge of the forest.
Despite the concerns of wilderness advocates, "There is no denying that this an important area of energy security. It is a question of pace, and how you do it, and where do it, and how rapidly," Randy Udall, head of the Community Office for Resource Efficiency in Aspen, Colo., told UPI.
"The push is to get the resource out," Udall added. "Multiple use has been drowned in the bathtub. If the administration has its way, these lands will be dedicated to natural gas production."
Simply leasing more land, however, does not necessarily provide more energy, and the 10-year lease terms tie up the future of that property for some time. Currently, there are only about 1,000 gas rigs available to drill, and they all are already working somewhere. There also is a shortage of experienced manpower.
"I think you have to distinguish between short-term and long-term," API's Bush said. "We're not just looking at how much additional resource can be produced over the next two months -- or the next six months. We're looking down the road as well. Those constraints may change when you look ahead."
Udall said, however, the reality on the ground, given the laws of the land, is "people and wildlife are just getting steamrollered. These Republican ranchers stand up and tell their horror stories. A lot of it is just a mess. But state laws also actively promote the exploitation of the resources."
One of those aforementioned Republicans is Tweeti Blancett, a sixth generation New Mexico cattle rancher.
"We have better than 500 wells on our ranch," she told UPI, "and they are getting ready to double that. We are tired of contributing through either (cattle) abortion or death loss so that we can produce oil and gas."
In areas unpolluted by oil and gas development, Blancett said, about 95 percent of the cattle could be bred successfully, compared with 75 percent to 80 percent in the polluted area.
"I've got complete autopsies with all the things that were eating up the stomach lining, eating up the intestines," Blancett said.
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In this series, Dan Whipple, who covers the environment for UPI Science News, examines the Bush administration's record on environmental issues. E-mail [email protected]
