Recently released documents show the Obama administration was getting ideas from environmental groups about setting aside millions of acres in the West, drawing the ire of land users who said discussions were being developed behind their back.

In the documents – most of which are e-mail messages – the environmental groups suggest various ways to protect land, such as by creating national monuments, buying private land or through conservation easements.

A subsequent internal Interior Department memo – which the agency said is simply the product of brainstorming – listed 2.5 million acres in Montana for a new bison range as one of 14 sites in nine Western states being considered as national monuments.

Some of the other sites mentioned in the Interior Department documents include the Berryessa Snow Mountains in California, the Northwest Sonoran Desert in Arizona, the San Juan Islands in Washington state and two possible designations in Utah: the San Rafael Swell and Cedar Mesa.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said any proposals or decision would face public input.

Republicans who submitted an information request to obtain the documents blasted the information as proof that the administration was privately crafting large-scale land use plans. Federal agencies have so far produced only a fraction of the requested documents, they said.

“We now find references to plans that Montanans were told weren’t in the works,” said U.S. Rep. Denny Rehberg, a Montana Republican. “This doesn’t pass the smell test.”

The e-mails show detailed discussions that went into brainstorming for the “Treasured Landscapes Initiative.”

In Montana, a dozen or so pages show a back-and-forth discussion setting up meetings and brainstorming ways to protect prairie grasslands stretching from the Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge north to the Canadian border. Much of that land is leased for cattle grazing and used in other ways.

“Ranchers were not involved in these discussions despite always being respectful of federal agency processes,” said Errol Rice, executive vice president of the Montana Stockgrowers Association. “Removing ranchers from these lands in the name of preservation is not in the public’s best interest.”

Motorized users said they also were surprised to find out they were left out of the brainstorming for land they use.

“We are concerned that with the Treasured Landscapes Initiative, it appear the only groups that have had input have been the environmental groups,” said Russ Ehnes, with the Montana Trail Vehicle Riders Association. “If there are indeed going to be monument designations, we would expect this administration to do what they promised in the campaign and let all stakeholders participate in the process.”

One of the environmental groups suggesting protection for the land in Montana said they were not enlisted by Interior, and said they were informally submitting ideas.

Martha Kauffman, with the World Wildlife Fund, said the group wanted to make sure the prairie area was not forgotten about if there were new federal protections. She said they never got a firm sense what exactly the Treasured Landscapes Initiative was, and how much of it involved monument designations that have drawn the ire of conservatives in the West.

“It wasn’t like they reached out to us. We had heard of it through the grapevine, that there was this initiative,” Kauffman said. “I think everyone needs a voice in it. There’s the ranchers, there’s the hunters, there’s the conservation groups, there’s a lot of different folks with an interest out there and I think they all have an important viewpoint.”

The Interior Department stressed that any proposals for federal land conservation would face public review and require local support.

“Secretary Salazar believes new designations and conservation initiatives work best when they build on local efforts to better manage places that are important to nearby communities,” said Betsy Hildebrandt, agency spokeswoman.

He was also Superintendent of Dead Horse Point State Park for 15 years. While at Dead Horse Point, he also supervised the state’s boating and off-highway vehicle programs in the Moab area.

A 25-year Moab resident and graduate of Utah State University, Rock has worked in various positions around the state for the Forest Service and Utah State Parks, including the Wasatch-Cache National Forest and the Intermountain Forest and Range Experiment Station in Logan, Steinaker State Park near Vernal, and This is the Place State Park in Salt Lake City.

Bureau of Land Management Director Bob Abbey today announced the appointment of two long-time managers to key leadership positions. 

Juan Palma, currently the BLM’s Eastern States Director, will assume the State Director’s job in Utah, and Selma Sierra, currently the Utah State Director, will move to the Eastern States Director position.

“I am very pleased that Juan and Selma have agreed to serve in these key positions,” Abbey said.  “Both bring with them a wealth of experience and knowledge about the BLM’s programs.” 
 
Before serving in his current position, Palma was the field manager in the BLM’s Las Vegas office.  Prior to that, he was the executive director for the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency, a bi-state compact agency that oversees all land-use planning activities within the Lake Tahoe Region. He has held a number of other land-management jobs, including the district manager position for the BLM’s Vale District office in Oregon, and was forest supervisor for the Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit.

Palma was raised in Toppenish, Wash. He attended Brigham Young University and graduated from Oregon State University with a business management degree. He received a master’s degree in environmental sciences from the University of Nevada at Reno.

Sierra has held numerous positions within the BLM and at the Department of the Interior.  Before her current position, she served as the BLM chief of staff in the Washington, D.C., office. Prior to that, she was the agency’s assistant director for communications.  Sierra has also held positions in the Department of the Interior, Department of Commerce and on Capitol Hill.

Sierra is a native of La Union, N.M.  She received a bachelor of arts degree in journalism and government from New Mexico State University.

Amid talk of oil play, Wyoming nets record lease sale

 Associated Press

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management auctioned off a record $32.3 million in federal oil and gas rights in Wyoming amid speculation that a major oil play could be in the offing in the eastern part of the state.

Tuesday’s quarterly lease sale in Cheyenne broke the previous record of $30 million set in April 2008 and was three times the total paid for all leases in Wyoming last year.

The leases with the highest bids were in Converse, Goshen and Platte counties in eastern and southeastern Wyoming. Applications to the state to drill oil wells have surged in southeastern Wyoming in recent months.

“Obviously the people that are bidding on these acreages have a lot of confidence in the area and think the play is going to be a really great oil play for the state,” Bruce Hinchey, president of the Petroleum Association of Wyoming, said Wednesday.

The highest single bid at the BLM auction was $5.4 million for the rights to 1,724 acres in Converse County, northeast of Casper. That also set a record, topping the $4.5 million paid for a single lease in 1999, according to the BLM.

Maurice Brown, of Cheyenne, submitted the record-breaking bid, as well as the winning bid of $1.7 million for the rights to 560 acres in Converse County.

Big Bear Oil & Gas, based in Pleasanton, Texas, won a handful of high-priced leases including $2.2 million for the rights to 1,400 acres in Goshen County northeast of Cheyenne.

“It looks fantastic,” said Cindy Mercer, a certified public landman who represented Big Bear at the sale. “The potential appears to be there.”

The state has granted companies including EOG Resources Inc. more than two dozen permits in recent months to drill deep, horizontal oil wells into the Niobrara shale formation north of Cheyenne. New drilling technology used in North Dakota’s geologically similar — and booming — Bakken formation has led to speculation that a similar boom could happen here.

The Niobrara shale extends beneath western Nebraska and northeastern Colorado, as well as southeastern Wyoming.

When the BLM will issue the leases sold Tuesday is uncertain. The office in Wyoming has issued just 51 out of more than 1,200 leases auctioned off in the past two years.

BLM officials blame the backlog on protests filed by environmental groups, policy changes resulting from the change in presidential administrations, and environmentalist petitions to protect certain species as endangered.

AP – Cheyenne 

Environmental protests, uncertainty over endangered species and a change in presidential administrations have bogged down oil and gas leasing in Wyoming.

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management has issued just 51 of nearly 1,200 oil and gas leases sold at its 11 lease auctions since June 2008.

The backlog prompted Gov. Dave Freudenthal to “implore” Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, a fellow Democrat, to act in a January letter. Yet the backlog is likely to grow when the BLM holds its next lease auction today.

Of the 85 leases the BLM plans to offer at the regular sale in Cheyenne, environmental groups are protesting 62. If previous auctions are any indication, that means at least 62 more leases in limbo — none of the 51 leases recently issued was protested.

Environmental groups have protested 1,297 of 1,351, or 96 percent, of leases offered from the June 2008 sale through the upcoming sale, BLM documents show.

“No wonder companies are taking their money and investing in other states that have private land, where they don’t have to deal with this bureaucracy and politics,” said Bruce Hinchey, president of the Petroleum Association of Wyoming.

Oil and gas leasing in Wyoming provides a significant share of the nation’s energy. The state in 2008 ranked second among states for natural gas production, providing more than 10 percent of the U.S. total, and ranked seventh for oil production, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

Environmentalists defend the protests as necessary to protect Wyoming’s wildlife and cherished vistas. They expressed doubt that the protests are slowing down drilling.

“The oil industry has enough leases in its pocket now to drill for decades. So the idea that somehow a scarcity of oil and gas leases is holding up energy production is laughable,” said Erik Molvar, executive director of the Biodiversity Conservation Alliance.

Not only are companies unable to drill on leases they’ve bought, the state and federal governments haven’t had access to the $50 million companies have paid.

Half of the money would go to the state and half to the federal government. Both are having budget trouble, yet the money has been piling up in an escrow account pending a BLM decision on whether to issue the leases.

“I implore your immediate attention to these unissued leases,” Freudenthal wrote Salazar on Jan. 8. “Some would say that the oil and gas industry is getting what it deserves. But this is much too serious an issue for such pettiness.”

A reply letter from Assistant Interior Secretary Wilma Lewis said the leasing process is “broken” and the department is working on a way to “restore needed balance.”

Salazar spokeswoman Kendra Barkoff did not respond to a request for comment.

Julie Weaver, the BLM’s head of oil and gas leasing in Wyoming, said she expects the backlog to end soon, especially now that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced in March that it would not list sage grouse as a threatened or endangered species. Most of Wyoming, including its best oil and gas fields, is sage grouse habitat.

Even so, Fish and Wildlife determined that protection for sage grouse is warranted, just precluded by higher priorities. That didn’t exactly open the gate for leases.

“We had to go back and re-evaluate everything to make sure that we are complying with the Fish and Wildlife decision to warrant that animal,” Weaver said.

The BLM auctions offer oil and gas leases every other month in Cheyenne. Environmental groups began stepping up protests against the leases a couple years ago.

Groups have protested not just leases in sage grouse habitat but leases they said could affect a wide range of wildlife — prairie dogs, raptors, big game migration corridors and fish. Some protests have focused on climate change.

“We must address a protest before we can issue a lease,” Weaver said. “And we have protests on every sale, different parcels in every sale, that we’re trying to resolve.”

She also said the change in presidential administrations has required the BLM state office in Cheyenne to adjust to new policies.

On Thursday, environmental groups stepped up pressure on the BLM by suing over the BLM’s plan for oil and gas development in southern Wyoming. The area includes Adobe Town, a “wilderness quality” badlands where the groups say the BLM has approved five drilling permits.

The groups, represented by the Natural Resources Defense Council, include the Biodiversity Conservation Alliance, which by itself or with others has protested more than 90 percent of leases offered over the past two years. Other plaintiffs include the Wyoming Outdoor Council, which has protested leases offered at every sale over the past two years.

Wyoming Outdoor Council attorney Bruce Pendery said his group used to be one of the few that would protest oil and gas leases in Wyoming. Now, he said, a range of groups have been protesting leases.

“To me, what that speaks to is that there was this massive effort to increase oil and gas leasing during the Bush administration,” Pendery said. “Because of that massive effort to increase leasing, there was an equally massive response.”

Other groups that have been protesting leases include the National Audubon Society, Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, Trout Unlimited, Center for Native Ecosystems and Wyoming Wildlife Federation. Sometimes the groups object to just a handful of leases.

Other times, it’s every lease offered at a sale, as the Biodiversity Conservation Alliance has done eight times in the past two years.

“Our goal here is to get results on the ground for wildlife and for special landscapes,” Molvar said. “Not to prevent the oil and gas industry from gaining access to oil and gas leases.”

Will Drill Up to 100 Additional Wells on Anticline – Readies Bakken

BY: GERRY MINICK

Questar Corporation plans to drill between 95 – 100 additional wells on Wyoming’s Pinedale Anticline, and is moving forward to separate off its exploration and production business from the regulated utility arm of the company pending approval of the Board of Directors.

CEO Keith Rattie said the split is intended to separate the regulated parts of the company that provide steady but conservative returns from the more volatile drilling business, which has grown rapidly in recent years.

The E & P unit accounted for about 34 percent of the company’s net income in 2009. Tentatively named E&P Co.,  the new entity would be comprised of the commodity businesses, Questar E&P, Questar Gas Management, and Questar Energy Trading.

After the spinoff, Questar Corp. would remain an integrated natural gas company, comprised of Wexpro, plus our regulated businesses, Questar Pipeline, and Questar Gas.

 “A separation of our high-growth E&P business from our regulated businesses may be a logical step in a long-term strategy that has served all Questar stakeholders well over the past decade,” Rattie said in the statement. “If consummated, we believe the spinoff would create two top-tier companies in their respective market segments.”

Shareholders would get an equal value of shares in both companies, Questar Corp. and would be headquartered in Denver.

Subject to Board approval and other conditions precedent, the spin could occur in the third or fourth quarter of this year.

“Bottom line, we think that a spinoff of our E&P business would create two top tier companies in their respective market segments. Over the past decade, you’ve seen what we’ve done to transform Questar by driving growth in our E&P business. We’ve transformed Questar E&P from what was once primarily a Rockies producer into a multi-basin growth company operating in several of the most economic natural gas plays in the country today. And in doing so, we’ve delivered double digit reserves and production growth while maintaining one of the lowest cost structures in the industry.  We think that E&P Co would continue to be one of America’s fastest growing E&P companies.”

The transaction would not require the approval of federal or state regulators.

By the Numbers:

Pinedale Anticline:

• 95-100 new completions forecast for 2010
• Completed well cost below $4.5 MM
• 6 Questar operated rigs in 2010

Bakken

• 7th operated well drilling
• 1 operated rig in 2010
• Three Forks Fm to be tested in 2010

On Wednesday, May 5, 2010, the House Natural Resources Committee voted down (by a margin of 20-22) a motion offered by Ranking Member Doc Hastings (WA) to favorably report H. Res. 1245 out of Committee. The Resolution is an attempt by Congress to require the Secretary of the Interior to turn over specific information related to potential National Monument designations.

Interestingly, the Department of the Interior (DOI) delivered nearly 400 pages of emails to the Committee less than 24 hours before it was scheduled to vote on the Resolution. However, the agency withheld some 2,016 pages of additional documents directly related to potential Monument designations.

The controversy began with the discovery of an internal DOI document labeled “NOT FOR RELEASE” which details plans for 14 new or expanded national monument designations, totaling some 13 million acres of public and private land.

Rep. Hastings, who has led a bi-partisan effort to require the DOI to disclose information said: “When the federal government is discussing the lockup of 13 million acres of public lands with the stroke of the President’s pen, the American people have a right to know what their government is doing. I encourage my Democrat colleagues to help the Obama Administration adhere to their claims of openness and transparency by bringing this resolution to a vote on the floor of the full House,” said Hastings. “If this Resolution is not brought to the House floor in a timely manner, I promise this Committee will see plenty of similar Resolutions until the Department of Interior reveals what they are hiding.”

House rules provide that the Democrat Majority on the Committee had 14 legislative days to report the Resolution of Inquiry or it would have been eligible to be brought to the Floor of the House of Representatives for a vote as a Privileged Resolution. A future Floor vote on the Resolution is now entirely subject to the will of the Majority.

Meanwhile, legislation that would remove a President’s unilateral authority to designate National Monuments is moving slowly. The bill is titled the Preserve Land Freedom For Americans Act of 2010 (HR 4996) is sponsored by North Carolina Rep. Virginia Foxx. HR 4996 was referred to the House Committee on Natural Resources on April 13, 2010. BRC is encouraging our members to contact their Representatives and encourage them to co-sponsor HR 4996 and work for its passage into law.

Social Justice Center provides forum for green groups sans rebuttal

BY: GERRY MINICK

 A recent article in the Laramie Boomerang lauded the Powder River Basin Resource Council/Wyoming Outdoor Council (http://www.laramieboomerang.com/articles/2010/04/09/news/doc4bbeb7e9a0832451532947.txt) presentation during a symposium on Environmental Social Justice at UW in late April.

The writer described how, according to the PRBRC and WOC, their members in the Powder River Basin are being forced to bear the burden of energy development.

Here’s an exerpt of the story:

“Environmental social justice is the theme of this year’s symposium, something University of Wyoming president Tom Buchanan said was “important, relevant and connected to all of us.”
During a panel discussion in the Wyoming Union, Steve Smutko, the Wyoming Excellence Spicer Distinguished Chair in Environment and Natural Resources, framed the symposium’s theme as a question:
“How is it that your decision to alter our environment for the benefits we receive… how does that affect those who are predominantly or repeatedly asked to bear the burdens of our comfort?” he said. The question becomes more difficult when trying to weigh moral or social consequences against economic development, or even environmental consequences.”
In the Powder River Basin, Jill Morrison has seen her neighbors bear the burden of energy development. A community organizer for the Powder River Basin Resource Council, Morrison talked during a panel discussion about ongoing issues there.
“We have to shovel a lot of excuses from energy developers and the state for why they can’t do a better job protecting our land, wildlife and air while we develop these important resources,” she said.
Richard Garrett, a legislative and outreach advocate for the Wyoming Outdoor Council, said the state should take a stand about the water that’s wasted and the damage it does in the process.
“We’re wasting a resource, and we are polluting the ground over which that resource flows, and we have an obligation to do better with that resource,” he said.

There are many facts missing from the symposium and from the story, none the least of which there was apparently no attempt by Mr. Smutko nor the Laramie Boomerang to fully frame the discussion by challenging PRBRC/WOC’s assertions; to offer opposing landowner viewpoints; or to explore the social and environmental injustices when special interest groups run rampant over public policy.

Incidentally, Mr. Smutko is facilitating a WDEQ working group that is supposed to be looking for consensus solutions on the Agricultural Use Protection Policy. 

The story prompted some rebuttals, and created some questions, like why did the symposium organizers assume that environmental injustice occurs only how and when the PRBRC/WOC says it does?  If the goal of the symposium is to stimulate thought and discussion, why weren’t those with other viewpoints invited to speak? Is there an agenda at work that may be counter to the mission of resolving differences on the WDEQ working group?      

Comments:

concerned citizen wrote on Apr 9, 2010 12:24 PM:

” What this story DOESN’T mention is that the PRBRC is BY FAR THE MINORITY in the PRB!!!! The MAJORITY of landowners (both surface and mineral owners) think CBNG development is a huge benefit to them that have changed their ranches for the BETTER!
They say development saved their ranches in the drought years and they will reap benefits from the methane years and year s after the development is gone. The reclaimed land looks better than it did in the first place. It is a win-win situation! The PRBRC is really just 4-5 landowners vs. 100′s that love it! ”

And, received from Monica Deromedi, executive director of the Coalbed Natural Gas Alliance:

More to Wyoming’s energy development

The Laramie Boomerang’s story, “Symposium focuses on education, energy” is missing many facts about Wyoming energy development. According to the article, it seems as if  the University of Wyoming unfortunately took part in delivering a less-than-the complete representation of the facts to our youth.

The first paragraph says the Shepard Symposium taught children about, “… the burden of energy development on rural Wyoming residents.”

It uses words to imply Wyomingites think energy development is a burden. The word ‘burden’ should have been ‘benefit’.

To the vast majority of state residents, the energy industry means jobs and tax revenue. In a recent poll (done by an outside polling agency), 89 percent of Wyoming residents supported oil and natural gas exploration and production activities in our state. See the survey at www.cbnga.com.

Development co-exists with our agricultural operations, our environment and our intrinsic way of life. Technology is ever-changing to allow energy development with the smallest footprint possible.

In the 2009 tax year, Wyoming received nearly 3 billion dollars only from coalbed natural gas development in the Powder River Basin.

A large percentage of this money goes directly to education and to improve our way of life in Wyoming — our roads, our facilities, hospitals and schools are thanks to energy development.

The Powder River Basin Resource Council speaks for only a handful of landowners in Wyoming. They have endless grants from out-of-state donors, allowing their ‘squeaky wheel’ to be heard.

Through kitchen table discussions, industry and landowners cooperate openly and honestly to create long term relationships and plans for ranches, plans that improve the ranch in ways that the most ranchers could never do on their own.

It is unfortunate UW allowed the PRBRC to use their forum to teach our children things that aren’t true about energy development. Without energy development, the children wouldn’t have schools to sit in, Hathaway Scholarships, top-notch infrastructure, renowned teachers and personal lap-tops for students.

UW should have forums that instead teach our children to be proud of how we manage our natural resources because it is something to be proud about in Wyoming.

Monica Deromedi

BILLINGS—Gene Terland, State Director for the Bureau of Land Management in Montana and the Dakotas, has retired.   

 Terland was at the Montana post since 2006.  A Montana native and Montana State University graduate, his BLM career spanned 36 years.  Prior to coming to Billings he served in Oregon, Idaho, Alaska and Utah working his way up from a range technician to the top field position in the agency.  Terland and his wife, Dee, currently make their home in Columbus, Mont. 

 Howard Lemm has been named as the acting State Director until a permanent replacement is selected.  Lemm is a native of Twin Bridges, Mont., and normally serves as Montana’s Associate State Director.

Task Force Seeks to Restore the Constitutional Balance of Power

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Representative Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) and ten other Members of Congress officially launched the newly formed 10th Amendment Task Force.  The Task Force will develop and promote proposals that aim to disperse power, decision-making, and taxpayer money from Washington back to states, local governments and individuals. 

 The following are excerpts of Representative Lummis’ remarks during the 10th Amendment Task Force press conference:

“It’s a shame that it takes a financial crisis to finally motivate Washington to read the directions. You know the old saying, ‘when all else fails read the directions.’  And the directions are in our Constitution. And the Constitution– after we had the Declaration of Independence reminding us that we were endowed with inalienable rights by our Creator, and that we were consenting to be governed by this unified government under the Constitution — giving that government in Washington limited powers so we would protect our borders, we would defend our country, and we’d deliver the mail.

“It was contemplated that other powers would be reserved to the states and the people. And as someone who has spent her entire adult life before coming here in the Wyoming Legislature and as State Treasurer, and as the Director of State Lands and Investments in Wyoming, I am astounded by what Members of Congress feel are appropriate issues for this Congress to deal with.

“The issues we deal with every day are by and large issues that were intended by the framers of the Constitution to be addressed at the state level. And that’s because states know their people better. They know their issues better.

“It’s important that we return to states what states do best. And that we have a strong limited government here in Washington to make sure that we do what we do best — securing the strength and integrity of this country.”