Red Lodge Clearinghouse

The Bush administration joined Wyoming Gov. Dave Freudenthal (D) yesterday in support of legislation that would protect more than 1.2 million acres of the Wyoming Range from oil and minerals development.

Bureau of Land Management and Forest Service officials told the Senate Public Lands and Forests Subcommittee that although their agencies support the bill, they have concerns such as the potential affect the bill would have on the nation's energy resources and on the individual rights of current leaseholders in the area.

"This area contains significant energy resources, and we are concerned that a withdrawal from mineral development that is too broad could significantly impact the administration's efforts to ensure access to important energy resources," said BLM Deputy Director Luke Johnson.

S. 2229 from Wyoming Republican Sens. Mike Enzi and John Barrasso would withdraw 1.2 million acres of the Wyoming Range, part of the Bridger Teton National Forest that sits south of Jackson Hole and Grand Teton National Park, from future energy development and would prohibit new oil and gas leasing on the land. The legislation would provide a buy-out process for current leaseholders and would permit the remaining leases to be voluntarily purchased by conservation groups and other entities to retire the leases.

There are currently 76 oil and gas leases held by production and 26 hardrock mining claims located within or adjacent to the proposed withdrawal area, according to BLM. The bureau estimates the 1.2 million acres at stake contains 8.8 trillion cubic feet of natural gas -- an amount roughly equal to one-third of a year's annual natural gas consumption for the entire nation -- and 331 million barrels of oil that are "technically recoverable using today's technology."

Freudenthal said that as of 2007, roughly 86 percent of all federal lands in the state were open to oil and gas leasing and that Wyoming had long embraced its role as a provider of natural resources to the nation, but some places should be off-limits.

"From coal and trona miners to uranium producers and oil and gas operators, the backs of Wyomingites are strong, having long carried the nation's natural resources burdens," Freudenthal said.

"Now it is time for the nation to give us something back, to protect something that is near to our hearts: the Wyoming Range," he added.

Opponents of the bill argue that it would prevent developers from tapping a much needed resource. "For much of the last century, most of the oil and gas was produced from state and private lands," said Public Lands Advocacy executive director Claire Moseley. "As these resources became depleted, industry has been forced to seek out new sources on public lands to meet escalating demand for energy supplies."

Moseley suggested establishing a fair market value for the value of the mineral resource under a lease, creating one-mile development buffers around producing fields to allow for future expansion and adding additional language that would ensure the protection of rights associated with existing leases.

Subcommittee Chairman Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) expressed his own support for the bill saying that, "thoughtful minds realize it is possible to protect [natural] treasures and protect economic development at the same time, but once it comes to Washington it seems to get caught up in procedural snafus."

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