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Denver, CO – Today, U.S. Representative Diana DeGette (D-CO) filed her protest (attached) on the Bureau of Land Management’s proposed plan for Roan Plateau, an environmentally sensitive and spectacularly wild area in Western Colorado. The text of her protest follows:
October 16, 2006
U.S. Department of the Interior
Bureau of Land Management
Director (210), Attention – Brenda Williams
P.O. Box 66538
Washington DC 20035
To Whom It May Concern:
I write today to formally protest the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) Final Management Plan and Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) for the Roan Plateau. While the plan incorporates some responsible oil and gas drilling techniques and methods that would be most welcome in areas suitable for energy extraction, the FEIS clearly promotes the full energy development of the Roan Plateau. This would needlessly sacrifice one of the most environmentally sensitive and spectacularly wild areas in the state of Colorado.
My primary concern is that the FEIS flies in the face of thousands of public comments, testimony, and local government resolutions which support protecting the top of the Roan Plateau from natural gas drilling. The BLM’s blatant disregard of the local, state, and national support for protecting the plateau is not adequately addressed in the FEIS. The diverse public support for protection should have carried more weight in the final plan instead of being summarily ignored.
The plan instead relies on a “compromise” position in part created by the Colorado Department of Natural Resources (CDNR). However, this “compromise” was created after the formal public participation process for the Roan Plateau had ended. The public has had no opportunity to comment or ask questions about the CDNR plan which formed the core of the FEIS. I strongly encourage the BLM to solicit further public comment on the CDNR plan.
I am also concerned that the proposed plan threatens the wilderness character of the Roan Plateau. As you know, this area was included in citizens’ wilderness proposals and the BLM itself has identified wilderness quality lands within the plateau. I have authored federal legislation, H.R. 4587, the “Colorado Wilderness Act,” which would bring select areas on the plateau under permanent federal protection from drilling, road building, and other development. Wilderness designation will preserve the Roan for recreation, hunting, and wildlife. The type of drilling on the Roan described in the FEIS will compromise these multiple uses and cause noise, pollution, wildlife disruption, water quality risks and lasting damage to wilderness-quality public lands.
The FEIS prescribes a number of stipulations and techniques to protect roadless and areas of environmental concern. Unfortunately, while perhaps sounding good on paper, there is little evidence the stipulations will contain adequate enforcement or protective mechanisms to ensure their compliance or desired effect. Furthermore, the BLM has a history of waiving these stipulations for the convenience of the oil and gas industry to encourage energy development to the detriment of all other uses and land values.
After years of public comment and hard work by the BLM on a land management plan for the Roan Plateau I am deeply disappointed in the Final EIS. While it is billed as a compromise it clearly was created to encourage energy development on the Roan Plateau. A number of reasonable proposals were put forth which could have allowed both future energy development and preservation of natural resources on the Plateau, however these have seemingly been ignored.
Every acre of every tract of public land is not appropriate for energy development. The BLM should focus its efforts to promote drilling where leases already exist and do not interfere with Coloradans’ ability to enjoy the outdoors or cause damage to vital ecosystems. The Roan Plateau should be preserved.
I urge the BLM to reconsider thousands of public comments and input from local communities and make the Roan Plateau off-limits to further drilling.
Sincerely,
Diana DeGette
Member of Congress
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