Reactions from conservation groups both nationally and on the ground in Colorado have been mixed regarding this week’s U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) guidance for the preservation of habitat for the greater sage grouse.
U.S. Rep. Jared Polis Thursday said he hopes a new report from the Department of Interior highlighting 18 backcountry areas for conservation protection, including several in Colorado, will spark action by Congress “in spite of partisan gridlock elsewhere.”
When it comes to constructing roads to manage national forests, U.S. Rep. Scott Tipton doesn’t think the Colorado Roadless Rule goes far enough.
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar’s teaser on Friday that he will “make a major announcement regarding Grand Canyon National Park” today has prompted speculation he’ll address the expiration of a two-year ban on new uranium mining claims that he imposed in 2009.
Colorado conservation groups are rallying the troops in Golden today for one of only three forums nationwide that the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is conducting on the controversial natural gas drilling process called hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking.” BLM director Bob Abbey is weighing whether to require public disclosure of chemicals used in fracking operations on federal lands. Today’s BLM meeting will be held from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the Denver Marriott West in Golden.
Dr. Jeremy Boak, a leading expert on oil shale technology at the Colorado School of Mines, says the Obama administration is dragging its feet on oil shale production in the United States much the way the Bush administration stalled on climate change policy. “It’s curious to hear the same sort of arguments being made by this administration that were made by the Bush administration for not doing anything on climate change,” Boak told the Colorado Independent. “We’ve got to have all the answers before we can move.”
House Republicans today began a week of what will no doubt be heated hearings aimed at blocking Interior Secretary Ken Salazar’s Wild Lands order that directed the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to protect millions of acres of federal land for its wilderness value.
With crude oil prices creeping back toward $100 a barrel and unrest racking the Middle East from Egypt – where 3 million barrels of mostly U.S.-bound oil passes through the Suez Canal each day – to Bahrain, home to the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet, it’s not surprising there’s renewed interest in Colorado’s vast oil shale reserves.
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