BLM delays draft EIS on Colorado’s Roan Plateau

The Associated Press

An eagerly awaited draft environmental impact statement detailing how much oil and gas drilling is envisioned on Colorado’s Roan Plateau has been delayed until December at the earliest.

“We don’t have a release date,” said Steve Bennett, an assistant field manager for the Bureau of Land Management.

“But it definitely won’t be November.”

The plateau is a key site in the Bush administration’s effort to open more of the Rocky Mountains to energy development. It sits on an estimated 7 trillion cubic feet of natural gas in one section alone, making it one of the most sought-after reserves in the West.

About 5.5 trillion cubic feet of that gas is considered recoverable and has an estimated worth of $22 billion.

Bennett said an air-quality study is delaying the draft plan, which will cover a 73,000-acre area that includes the 43,000-acre plateau itself 150 miles west of Denver.

Numerous gas wells have been drilled at its base and some wells atop the 3,000-foot-high plateau are already producing gas.

The question of wilderness is likely to be thorny as the plan is debated. Citizen groups say 38,000 acres of the plateau should be protected as wilderness, which would prohibit development and mechanized recreation. A BLM study identified 22,000 acres with wilderness potential.

Interior Secretary Gale Norton said in April the department won’t consider potential wilderness identified after 1996 — making it possible there will be no wilderness in the area at all.

Environmentalists urged the government to take more time on putting the draft together.

Garfield County municipalities from Carbondale to Rifle have passed resolutions opposing drilling on the plateau. The BLM will take public comment on the draft plan for 90 days.

BLM in early stages of northeast NPR-A review

Petroleum News

Weil said BLM just concluded its scoping process in October and will not release the draft environmental impact statement until April. People will then have an opportunity to comment on the draft EIS, she said.

“It has been five years” since the original decision on the Northeast National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, she said, and BLM-Alaska State Director Henri Bisson “wants to take a look at the 1998 NE decision and see if we have any new information that would allow us to responsibly allow leasing in areas that are currently off limits and look into making stipulations consistent” between the northwest NPR-A and northeast NPR-A.

The agency is scheduled to release its final plan and environmental impact statement for the northwest NPR-A Nov. 21.

Weil also said BLM has found that views of North Slope residents vary. Bisson and Bob Schneider, BLM’s field manager in Fairbanks, spent five hours with North Slope Borough residents, “and came away feeling fairly positive,” she said.

The state has submitted a scoping letter, and Weil said they “have concerns about the habitat that Teshekpuk Lake provides for wildlife” and “do not take a definitive positive position.”

That, she said, “would be premature based on where we are in the process.”

Asked where the state stands on the issue of expanding exploration in NPR-A, Joe Brenckle, assistant press secretary for the governor, told Petroleum News:

“We are confident that the residents of the North Slope Borough and the Bureau of Land Management will reach an agreement that meets the needs of the borough residents, and allows responsible oil and gas development to proceed.”