The Obama administration on Friday announced an additional $1.4 million this year that it will leverage into $3.7 million for 20 new projects and more than 500 new jobs (pdf) across the nation. In all, a spokesman said the Department of Interior is investing $37.6 million this year on roles for low-income people between the ages of 15 and 25. The outdoor jobs are part of Obama’s broader goal to employ 250,000 low-income and disconnected youth in the coming weeks.

“These first experiences building trails, clearing out hazardous fuels, or cleaning up rivers not only equip young people with skills for a new career, but can also awaken a love for the outdoors that lasts a lifetime,” Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said in a prepared statement.

In Colorado, Medicine Bow-Routt National Forests, the Rocky Mountain Youth Corps, The Nature Conservancy and Yampatika Outdoor Awareness Association are hiring young people to work on the Yampa River Basin in northwest Colorado, working on wildlife habitat and stream restoration projects.

The Forest Service also plans to hire at least 20 youth from Costilla and Conejos counties to work on the Rio Grande National Forest and San Luis Valley Bureau of Land Management. The youth with work on high-priority conservation projects such as riparian restoration, surveying bark beetle disturbance and mapping a culturally significant herbal plant, osha.

The Yampa River in Colorado (Photo by BLM)

Finally, Environment for the Americas will recruit eight Latino interns ages 18 to 25 to work with education and outreach and to engage in field research training and data collection at Forest Service and BLM sites in California, Colorado and Alaska where monitoring shorebirds is a priority.

“This program is putting youth to work and making our nation’s public lands more accessible,” said U.S. Department of Agriculture Tom Vilsack. “With 80 percent of our country now living in urban areas, it is through partnerships like these that we are finding opportunities for Americans to work, live and play on our forests and grasslands and experience America’s great outdoors.”

Here is a list of public lands projects outside of Colorado:

Alaska

- The University of Alaska and several partners will expand the state’s native science and engineering programs to encourage high school and college-age Alaska Native youth to pursue conservation careers via mentorship programs and hands-on internship opportunities on Forest Service and BLM lands in Alaska.

California

- The BLM, in partnership with the Student Conservation Association, California Conservation Corps and Los Angeles Conservation Corps will recruit and select 10 young adults ages 18-25 from underserved communities for employment in the Student Temporary Employment Program, potentially leading to career-conditional positions with the BLM.

- At least 12 Sierra Native American youth will tackle conservation projects in the Forest Service’s Hope and Indian Valley Meadows, and the BLM’s Stocking Flat and Tribute Trail in Nevada City. Training on tribal language skills, native conservation restoration techniques and researching traditional use of resources and ceremonial significance of sites will also be provided.

- The Mattole Restoration Council will provide 30 paid conservation internships for high school and college-age young people on projects on the King’s Range National Conservation Area and adjacent lands. Project activities will be guided by established management plans and improve grassland, estuarine, and forest habitats as well as riparian and in-stream conditions on the Mattole River and its headwaters tributaries.

- At-risk youth from the Los Angeles Conservation Corps will learn about conservation by helping to remove invasive species and plant native species on the San Bernardino and Angeles National Forests and on BLM preserves within the Coachella Valley in Southern California.

Georgia, North Carolina and Tennessee

- Chattahoochee, Cherokee and Nantahala-Pisgah National Forests will work with Groundwork Hudson Valley and The Wilderness Society to recruit 16 youth ages 18 to 21 New York to introduce participants to camping, develop job readiness, leadership, and team-building skills. The eight member youth crews will restore 24-plus miles of wilderness trails to standard over two years in areas prioritized by the Forest Service.

Kentucky and Indiana

- The Ohio River Foundation will hire two crews of six high school students for three weeks of summer work on the Ohio River Watershed on the Boone and Hoosier National Forests near Red River Gorge, Ky., and Norman, Ind. Activities will restore riparian habitat by removing invasive species and planting native species, and will protect water quality by reducing erosion.

Maryland

- The Maryland Department of Natural Resources, in partnership with the BLM, will expand the Maryland Conservation Corps and the Civic Justice Corps to involve students and young adults in conservation projects along the Potomac River at Douglas Point, Md. Participants will be guided and instructed by professionals in park planning and natural resource restoration science and will tackle high-priority restoration work.

Montana

- The Montana Conservation Corps will engage young people from urban communities, rural Montana and Native American tribes to accomplish 43 weeks of stewardship, restoration and monitoring projects to enhance the Southwestern Crown of the Continent ecosystem, and will work on the Flathead, Lolo and Helena National Forests and the BLM’s Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument and northern prairie landscapes.

Nevada

- The Great Basin Institute will partner with Nevada Conservation Corps and Partners in Conservation to restore 40 acres of BLM land along the Virgin River near Mesquite, Nev., that is prime Southwestern willow flycatcher habitat. Seventy young people will engage in hands-on restoration and monitoring and visit with hydrologists, biologists, and other natural resource professionals to learn about conservation career pathways.

New Mexico

- The Forest Guild and the Cibola National Forest will hire and train 12 Tribal youth from Cibola and McKinley counties for part-time seasonal jobs for up to two years. The young people will help with gathering habitat structure data to carry out management for an area that is habitat for keystone species such as northern goshawk, Mexican spotted owl, and Abert’s squirrel.

Oregon

- Mt. Hood Community College will hire and train 30 urban youth and 2 crew leaders to complete essential restoration projects over two summers in the Sandy River Basin, just east of metropolitan Portland. Youth will work with agency professionals and Basin partners to gain job-readiness skills and hands-on experience in salmon habitat restoration, trail work, native plant restoration, project management, and invasive-plant removal.

- The Tillamook School District will partner with the BLM to monitor Coho salmon stream restoration sites and collect data to assess the effectiveness of ongoing stream restoration on the Wilson, Nestucca, and Trask Rivers. A crew of one adult leader and five youth members, will work on will conduct aquatic invertebrate sampling, riparian fence monitoring, fish habitat evaluation, water quality sampling and analysis, and photo-point monitoring. $42,570 BLM; $77,500 non-federal funds.

- The Northwest Youth Corps will hire 50 local youth, at least 40 percent from the Klamath Tribe, to work on riparian fence building, invasive species removal, native plantings, survey completions and data management, and public lands access management. This project supports the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation’s Upper Klamath Basin Keystone Initiative by implementing high priority stewardship projects near the city of Klamath Falls, the Wood and Sprague River systems and the Williamson Delta. $99,995 BLM; $108,073 non-federal funds.

Utah

- The Corps, based at Utah State University in Logan, Utah, will expand its Bilingual Youth Corps by hiring 36 bilingual high school students over a two-year period to help complete 50 miles of wilderness trail maintenance and habitat restoration on 135 acres of public lands on the Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest, the Salt Lake Watershed and along the Jordan River Parkway.

Wisconsin

- Operation Fresh Start will engage 60 young people ages 16–24 in the inventory, planning, and restoration activities to identify and conserve the natural resources on 64 islands owned by BLM within the lower Wisconsin River. Activities include GIS mapping of plant communities and observed wildlife, natural features, and human use and development, and removing invasive species control and adding site enhancements such as bird boxes and signage.

Arizona’s Havasupai Tribe, the Grand Canyon Trust, Center for Biological Diversity, Sierra Club and National Parks Conservation Association filed a motion to intervene Monday in Gregory Yount’s lawsuit against the U.S. government’s 20-year ban on new uranium mining on federal land around the Grand Canyon and its lifeblood, the Colorado River. The move comes just weeks after the Nuclear Energy Institute and the National Mining Association joined Yount in suing to reverse the ban (pdf).

U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced a moratorium Jan. 9 on new hard-rock mining claims affecting about 1 million acres of land adjacent to the national park.

“Tourism, not mining, is the mainstay of the region’s economy,” said David Nimkin, regional director of National Parks and Conservation Association. “Millions enjoy the Grand Canyon each year and power the economic engine for much of the Southwest’s tourist industry. The last thing visitors want to find when visiting the Grand Canyon is industrial development and uranium mines.”

The Grand Canyon (Image: National Park Service)

Without a ban, the BLM study warned that 26 new uranium mines and 700 uranium exploration projects would be developed, resulting in over 1,300 acres of surface disturbance and the consumption of 316 million gallons of water. Officials have said new uranium mining would increase the potential for depletion and contamination of aquifers.

“Uranium mining imposes well-documented and unacceptable risks to the people and natural resources of our region,” said Grand Canyon Trust program director Roger Clark. “The lawsuit demonstrates how little industry cares about strong opposition expressed by community, tribal, and business interests and the many negative consequences that thorough impact studies show are associated with rampant industrialization of Grand Canyon’s watersheds.”

The environmental groups said they would also defend the U.S. government against a suit filed late last month by the Nuclear Energy Institute and the National Mining Association.

A symbol of the American West, the Grand Canyon region attracts about 5 million tourists and recreationists per year. President Theodore Roosevelt first protected it in 1908.

A resurgent interest in uranium mining in the Southwest sprung up several years ago when prices spiked in anticipation of new nuclear power reactors to replace coal-burning ones amid growing concerns about carbon emissions and climate change. The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant disaster in Japan last year had a chilling effect on the industry but uranium prospecting continues.

The company is one of only three that holds a federal lease to research oil shale energy development on the Western Slope, but officials say they would rather pursue other projects.

“Chevron has notified the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the Department of Reclamation, Mining and Safety (DRMS) that it intends to divest its oil shale research, development and demonstration lease in the Piceance Basin in Colorado,” the company announced Tuesday. “While our research was productive, this change assures that critical resources — people and capital — will be available to the company for other priorities and projects in North America and around the globe. We will work with the BLM and DRMS to determine the best path forward, timing and other issues.”

Despite nearly 100 years of failed attempts to make oil shale commercially viable, House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, has said the energy source will help fund his $260 billion transit package and U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn, R-Colorado, is pushing the Pioneers Act, which would revive a 2008 plan put together during the Bush administration to open 2 million acres of public lands in Utah, Wyoming and western Colorado to oil shale drilling. The House passed Lamborn’s bill this month.

The Congressional Budget Office issued a report, however, which projected that Boehner’s bill would, over 10 years, leave the highway trust fund $78 billion in the red, and the Interior Department is looking at slashing the amount of land available for oil shale research to 462,000 acres.

“Chevron’s research hardly got started and they quickly concluded that they were throwing money down a rabbit hole. It’s indicative of the fact that oil and gas companies see much more profitable, and realistic, opportunities elsewhere,” said Colorado energy expert Randy Udall.

Squeezing energy out of oil shale requires immense quantities of water. Industrial-scale oil shale development could require as much as 150 percent of the amount of water the Denver Metro Area consumes annually, according to Bureau of Land Management estimates.

As early as 1921, oil companies have been trying to tap northwest Colorado for oil shale. The expense required to develop the energy source, however, has outweighed potential profits. About a dozen different projects have come and gone during that time — none remembered more than “Black Sunday” when ExxonMobil pulled the plug on a huge oil shale operation in western Colorado in 1982 that left the region in economic shambles.

Chevron and its subsidiaries started amassing acreage in Colorado for oil shale research back in the 1930s.

“Oil companies have been trying to pull the sword from the stone for nearly a century. Oil shale has no King Arthur,” said Matt Garrington of the Checks & Balances Project. “Chevron’s decision to pull out of oil shale is yet another reason why [U.S. Rep. Scott] Tipton [R-Colorado] and Lamborn should quit saying that melting rocks into oil will somehow fund critical repairs to our roads and bridges.”

Royal Dutch Shell and AMSO are the other two companies that hold oil shale leases in Colorado.

White-nose syndrome was first linked to a bat cave near Albany, New York, in 2006 and it has since spread to 16 states and four Canadian provinces, and the fungus that causes the disease has been found on asymptomatic bats in another three states. The little brown bat, as well as the northern long-eared bat and the eastern small-footed bat, are all potential candidates for federal endangered species listings, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is currently reviewing their bleak outlook.

Other species of North American bats are endangered as a result of human habitat disturbance. Bats, which eat enough insects to save the U.S. agricultural industry between $3 billion and $53 billion a year, are also flying up against industrial-scale wind turbines that crush their thumb-sized bodies.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar will be directed to earmark the money from the 2012 endangered species recovery fund to research and manage the deadly outbreak of white-nose syndrome.

Bats swoop out of an old iron ore mine to feast on insects in southern Colorado.

“We’re grateful that there is an appropriation to fight white-nose syndrome and save bats, although much more than $4 million is needed to truly combat this unprecedented wildlife crisis,” said Mollie Matteson, conservation advocate at the Center for Biological Diversity.

Concern for North America’s bats is growing as the fungal disease that breeds in the nocturnal animals’ faces and wings continues to spread.

“The high number of bat deaths and range of species being affected far exceeds the rate and magnitude of any previously known natural or human-caused mortality event in bats, and possibly in any other mammals,” said Paul Cryan, a U.S. Geological Survey research scientist in Fort Collins and one of the authors of an analysis published in the journal Science last spring about bats’ economic contribution to the farming industry.

“It is obviously beneficial that insectivorous bats are patrolling the skies at night above our fields and forests. These bats deserve help,” Cryan said.

Scientists warn of more economic losses in the ag industry because of “the double-whammy effect” of bat deaths caused by white-nose syndrome and from wind turbines and other human encroachment.

“Because the agricultural value of bats in the Northeast is small compared with other parts of the country, such losses could be even more substantial in the extensive agricultural regions in the Midwest and the Great Plains, where wind-energy development is booming and the fungus responsible for white-nose syndrome was recently detected,” said Thomas Kunz, a distinguished biology professor at Boston University who studies bat behavior and ecology.

There are 18 species of bats in Colorado and at least two other types found in nearby parts of Utah and Oklahoma that may be here too. White-nose syndrome is not known to have reached Colorado.

The National Park Service has closed caves in the Pocono Mountains in the eastern United States and, out west, federal and state agencies partially closed some caves and abandoned mines on public lands in New Mexico in response to the spread of white-nose syndrome. Others, such as Carlsbad Caverns National Park and Mammoth Cave National Park, are enacting processes to screen visitors to prevent the transmission of the fungus that can develop into white-nose syndrome.

Colorado Parks and Wildlife is asking the public to report the sighting of any active or dead bats this winter. Last year, the agency, along with Orient Land Trust, established a 350-acre conservation easement including a defunct iron ore mine to protect 250,000 Mexican free-tailed bats.

Rocky Flats National Wildlife Refuge is in the weeds.

The inspector general overseeing the U.S. Interior Department issued a report (below) late last month warning that the 4,880-acre former nuclear-trigger factory is overrun with invasive weeds that could destroy the unique biology that served as the reason for establishing the refuge in the first place.

The invasive species raise the specter of nuclear contaminants spreading to surface water, the report says. But there isn’t enough money to eradicate the weeds, and even if there was, the contaminated ground may prove too dangerous for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to restore, the report cautions.

The inspector general’s report is the latest bad news for Rocky Flats, where plutonium triggers, also called nuclear pits, were manufactured on the windy plateau between Boulder and Golden for 40 years. Like the nuclear bomb triggers Rocky Flats made, the controversies surrounding it were explosive. There were serious leaks of radioactive waste in the 1950s and 1960s along with fires that resulted in the most costly industrial incidents of their time. Water and soil contaminations surfaced in the 1970s. The 1980s were no better for the U.S. Department of Energy facility, culminating in a Federal Bureau of Investigation raid in 1989 that shut it down for multiple violations of U.S. anti-pollution laws.

Happier days were on the horizon for Rocky Flats in 2001 when the U.S. Congress passed the Rocky Mountain National Wildlife Refuge Act, preserving 6,400 acres for the plateau’s unique biology. Three years later, an environmental impact study documented more than 600 different plant species on the refuge, including the rare xeric tall prairie grasses that exist in fewer than 20 places on earth. The refuge is also home to bald eagles, the Preble’s meadow jumping mouse and 1,300 animal species.

In 2007, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Colorado Department of Public Health and the Environment deemed 4,880 acres at Rocky Flats clean enough for non-residential, restricted uses to be managed by the Fish and Wildlife Service. The Department of Energy retained 1,500 acres where the land contains too many nuclear contaminants, which officials say must be “institutionally controlled.”

“The Refuge has sat idle since its establishment as the operation and maintenance of the Refuge remain unfunded,” the general inspector’s July 21 report reads. “The maintenance that does occur at the Refuge is mainly performed by FWS staff from the nearby Rocky Mountain Arsenal unit. Because the Refuge is not staffed, noxious weeds continue to spread and destroy the Refuge’s unique, native species. …

“Plowing – a preferred method for extirpating an invasive weed infestation of this extent – would likely be restricted on the Refuge due to the concern that major soil disturbances could cause elevated levels of remaining radioactive materials to migrate into surface water. The invasive weeds could potentially destroy the unique biological diversity that is the very reason for establishing this Refuge.”

Finding funding for Rocky Flats should be a priority, according to the inspector general.

In its report and attached memorandum, the Office of the Inspector General urges U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Director Daniel Ashe to “weigh the unique ecosystem and pressing circumstances of the Rocky Flats National Wildlife Refuge against the needs of other refuges, and promptly determine whether funds should be allocated to remediate the problem while corrective action is still possible.”

It won’t be easy. The report noted that of the 84 projects the Fish and Wildlife Service’s local office prioritized, only seven of them were funded in fiscal year 2010. There are 888 local projects in all.

Initial estimates are that it would take five years and almost $600,000 to control weeds in just the worst areas, which consists of about 1,100 acres, or one-fourth, of the refuge. Delaying action will result in even more weed invasion that will cause costs to spike and more years needed to get the job done.

David Lucas, the Fish and Wildlife Service’s chief of refuge planning, disputed the inspector general’s characterization that management of Rocky Flats is “idle.” In a phone interview this week, he said the Fish and Wildlife Service is managing the refuge, along with the arsenal and two ponds in the area.

“Our position is that it is being managed,” he said.

Pressed for specifics, Lucas said management of the refuge primarily consists of providing security to enforce laws within its borders, the monitoring of wildlife and adhering to a comprehensive plan issued in 2005. Restoration goals are in the comprehensive plan, including one objective to reduce invasive weeds by 15 percent in five years. The inspector general’s report would suggest that goal was not met.

“I can’t say at this moment with any certainty” whether any of the plan’s objectives have been met, Lucas said. “We’re still trying to work our way through that management plan now that we have it.”

He further contends the situation may not be as dire as the inspector general’s report suggests.

Plutonium levels are below those the Environmental Protection Agency and Colorado Department of Public Health outlined in letters from 2003 that clearly spell out restricted management activities at the refuge, Lucas said. He also cited drill seeding, herbicides and other alternatives to plowing that land managers can try to rid the wildlife refuge of invasive weeds and promote its native species.

“Invasive weeds are an issue across the West and in refuges across the nation,” he said.

Complicating the future of Rocky Flats is a stipulation that the Fish and Wildlife Service sell or trade a 300-foot-wide strip of property on the refuge’s eastern edge for transportation services. Two bids came in by the July 29 deadline and they are not without controversy themselves. One is to fold the land into the proposed Jefferson Parkway — a 10-mile toll road linking Colorado 128 with Colorado 93 to complete a beltway around the Denver metro area. The other bid is from Golden — a Jefferson Parkway opponent — that would build a bike path through the property. The Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center is against both ideas, pointing to a sampling it has done that found breathable particles of plutonium on a site near Rocky Flats they believe blew over from the defunct plant.

“Plutonium remains dangerously radioactive for a quarter of a million years,” the Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center website states. “Construction of either the highway or the bikeway along Indiana St. would almost certainly stir up clouds of plutonium-laden dust, making it available to be inhaled, endangering construction workers, nearby residents, commuters and others.”

Read the report:
61250726-Rocky-Flats-Report
//

Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar today released a report that assesses climate change risks and how these risks could impact water operations, hydropower, flood control and fish and wildlife in the western United States. The report to Congress, prepared by Interior’s Bureau of Reclamation, represents the first consistent and coordinated assessment of risks to future water supplies across eight major Reclamation river basins, including the Colorado, Rio Grande and Missouri river basins.

“Water is the lifeblood of our communities, rural and urban economies, and our environment,” Salazar said in a press release. “… small changes in water supplies or the timing of precipitation can have a big impact on all of us. This report provides the foundation for understanding the long-term impacts of climate change on Western water supplies and will help us identify and implement appropriate mitigation and adaptation strategies for sustainable water resource management.”

The report, which responds to requirements under the SECURE Water Act of 2009, shows several increased risks to western United States water resources during the 21st century. Specific projections include:

· a temperature increase of 5-7 degrees Fahrenheit;

· a precipitation increase over the northwestern and north-central portions of the western United States and a decrease over the southwestern and south-central areas;

· a decrease for almost all of the April 1st snowpack, a standard benchmark measurement used to project river basin runoff; and

· an 8 to 20 percent decrease in average annual stream flow in several river basins, including the Colorado, the Rio Grande, and the San Joaquin.

The report notes that projected changes in temperature and precipitation are likely to impact the timing and quantity of stream flows in all western basins, which could impact water available to farms and cities, hydropower generation, fish and wildlife, and other uses such as recreation.

“Impacts to water are on the leading edge of global climate change, and these changes pose a significant challenge and risk to adequate water supplies, which are critical for the health, economy, and ecology of the United States,” added Reclamation Commissioner Mike Connor.

Reclamation is implementing actions to mitigate and adapt to changing climate, the release said. For example, at Hoover Dam, new wide head range turbines are being installed that will allow more efficient power generation over a wider range of lake levels than existing turbines.

To develop the report, Reclamation used original research and a literature synthesis of existing peer-reviewed studies. Projections of future temperature and precipitation are based on multiple climate models and various projections of future greenhouse gas emissions, technological advancements, and global population estimates. Reclamation will develop future reports to Congress under the authorities of the SECURE Water Act that will build upon the level of information currently available and the rapidly developing science to address how changes in supply and demands will impact water management.

The Bureau of Reclamation is the largest wholesaler of water in the country, providing water to more than 31 million people and to one out of five Western farmers for irrigation of more than 10 million acres of farmland. Reclamation is also the second largest producer of hydroelectric power in the western United States with 58 power plants generating nearly a billion dollars in power revenues each year and producing enough electricity to serve 3.5 million homes.

Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar today released a report requested by President Barack Obama showing that two-thirds of all offshore oil and gas leases in the Gulf of Mexico and half of all onshore leases on federal lands are not currently being used by the energy companies that purchased the leases.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar

“We continue to support safe and responsible domestic energy production, and as this report shows, millions of acres that have already been leased to industry for oil and gas production sit idle,” Salazar said in a release.

“These are resources that belong to the American people, and they expect those supplies to be developed in a timely and responsible manner and with a fair return to taxpayers. As we continue to offer new areas onshore and offshore for leasing, as we have done over the last two years, we will also be exploring ways to provide incentives to companies to bring production online quickly and safely.”

In Colorado and neighboring Utah, states with between 1 million and 5 million federal lease acres, only 32 percent and 22 percent of those acres, respectively, are currently being used for oil and gas production.

In Wyoming and New Mexico, both states with more than 5 million federal lease acres, only 33 percent and 69 percent of those acres, respectively, are being used for oil and gas production.

In his weekly newsletter on Sunday, Republican Colorado Congressman Cory Gardner blamed the White House for rising energy costs.

“As is the case with jobs and the economy, Washington is a big part of the problem when it comes to the cost of energy,” Gardner said. “Over the last two years, the Obama administration has consistently blocked American energy production that would lower costs and create jobs.

“It has imposed a de facto moratorium on drilling in this country, and it tried to pass a national cap-and-trade tax on energy. The result of the administration’s freeze on energy production at home is that gas is on its way to $4 a gallon and unemployment remains high.”

Many analysts blame rising gasoline prices on a recovering global economy creating more demand around the world and ongoing political upheaval in North Africa and the Middle East. Gardner goes on to tout the “American Energy Initiative – an ongoing effort to stop government policies that are driving up gas prices.”

Gardner and other House Republicans have been trying to gut the regulatory authority of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as well as block Salazar’s Wild Lands proposal for identifying and designating appropriate U.S. Bureau of Land Management lands for wilderness protection.

Overall, the Salazar report found that about 45 percent of all onshore leases and 57 percent of all leased acres are idle. Of the more than 38 million leased onshore acres, nearly 22 million acres are not being used. The Department of Interior is considering “policy options to provide companies with additional incentives for more rapid development of oil and gas resources.”

Denver-based Matt Garrington, deputy director of the Checks & Balances Project, said in a release that “it’s time to clear up the muddy waters around the drilling debate, and today’s report by the Obama administration does just that. The simple truth is approval rates for drilling permits are up, and industry lays idle hands on over 21 million acres of public lands.

“We should put an end to Big Oil’s speculation on our public lands and continue to move forward with responsible energy development.”

Salazar, the focus of repeated grilling Wednesday on whether he plans to run for Colorado governor given the withdrawal of Gov. Bill Ritter, sidestepped those questions and outlined an aggressive new leasing program meant to continue domestic oil and gas exploration and production but under stronger environmental and public health protections.

“The difference is that in the prior administration the oil and gas industry essentially were the kings of the world,” Salazar told reporters. “Whatever they wanted to happen essentially happened. The department was essentially a handmaiden of the industry.”

Salazar described new guidelines for U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) field offices when it comes to identifying and leasing appropriate parcels; new environmental review policies that take a closer look at other natural attributes of a proposed lease parcel; and a Department of the Interior Energy Reform Team to oversee the changes.

A ‘command-and-control system’

Critics were quick to jump on the plan.

“We are disappointed to see the DOI moving to a bureaucratic command-and-control system in which government bureaucrats — rather than scientists with expertise in natural gas and oil development — dictate where energy development should occur. The market-based system has worked well for decades,” Independent Petroleum Association of Mountain States (IPAMS) government affairs director Kathleen Sgamma said in a release.

Salazar, who has grown increasingly pointed in his rebukes of the industry, said the notion that the DOI is trying to slow or shut down oil and gas production on public lands is patently false.

“I expect that the shrill nature of the criticisms from the oil and gas industry will come anyway, but there is a reality here and I think the facts speak for themselves. Those facts are that in 2009 the BLM held 35 onshore oil and gas leases, including four lease sales in December of ’09 alone. That’s 2,542 parcels covering 2.9 million acres.”

State Senate Minority Leader Josh Penry, R-Grand Junction, a frequent critic of the more environmentally stringent drilling regulations passed by the legislature last spring, issued a statement comparing Salazar’s announcement with the new state rules.

“Punitive restrictions on this important industry have already caused devastating job losses in my hometown,” Penry said. “Why on earth would Secretary Salazar want to take Colorado’s job-killing rules national?”

Good-for-business guidelines

Proponents of Salazar’s reforms say the recent slowdown is a function of the global recession and plummeting commodity prices. They also say better guidelines and closer government and public scrutiny will lead to fewer appeals of lease sales and less uncertainty for industry investors. In other words, they believe the new guidelines would be good for business.

Salazar cited records that demonstrated 40 percent of BLM leases were protested in 2008, during the Bush years, compared to 1 percent protested in 1998.

“A Department of Interior that was bringing about a slowdown or a moratorium on oil and gas development would have brought an end to much of that oil and gas leasing [in 2009] and we did not,” Salazar said. “Those from the industry who are crying out are simply crying because we are being thoughtful and are supporting development in the right way and in the right places.”

Indeed, representatives of Colorado’s oil and gas industry were much more measured than Penry in their response to Salazar’s reforms, acknowledging that they could be dealing with him as governor later this year.

“The natural gas industry will continue to work with the Department of Interior to ensure that energy resources are developed responsibly on federal lands,” said Tisha Conoly Schuller, president of the Colorado Oil & Gas Association (COGA).

“Once we review the new guidelines, we will work with Secretary Salazar and the BLM to ensure that the process provides some regulatory certainty for industry; it’s important that lease protests are reduced and that the playing field is level for all energy development.”

COGA is currently suing the state over the new Colorado rules, which Republicans on the gubernatorial campaign trail– including Penry, until he dropped out and backed former GOP congressman Scott McInnis– have used as a rallying cry against the Ritter administration. But Conoly Schuller said COGA will work to promote natural gas production no matter who is in the governor’s mansion.

“The natural gas industry is working with this administration, and we will continue to work with the next administration, regardless of party,” she said. “Our focus is to ensure that natural gas is a key element of Colorado’s energy solution. We wish the Governor and his family well.”

The candy shop

Environmentalists and sportsmen were effusive in their praise for the reforms, which they say will allow them more input on the recreational value of a potential lease parcel before it’s fast-tracked for drilling using categorical exclusions granted during the Bush administration under the Energy Policy Act of 2005.

“The steps outlined by Secretary Salazar should result in more effective conservation of important fish and wildlife habitat and sustaining our fishing and hunting opportunities,” Leah Elwell, conservation coordinator for the Federation of Fly Fishers, said in a release.

Salazar acknowledged the competing resources at play in federal oil and gas leasing. He said the Obama administration knows it can do much better when it comes to balancing wildlife habitat, energy development and public health.

“In the past our public lands were the essential candy store of the oil and gas industry, walk in and take whatever they wanted, and that’s not the way it ought to be done,” he said.

Got a tip? Freelance story pitch? Send us an e-mail. Follow The Colorado Independent on Twitter.

Issued as amendments to six existing research and development leases on public lands (five in Colorado and one in Utah), the 11th-hour Bush regulations set the ground rules for moving forward with commercial oil shale production if and when oil and gas companies arrive at viable technologies capable of affordably squeezing kerogen from shale rock and sand in western Colorado, eastern Utah and southwestern Wyoming.

Some estimates place oil shale reserves in the region’s Green River Formation at up to 1 trillion barrels of oil that could then be refined into petroleum. Kerogen is the organic material trapped in the shale that can be extracted at extremely high temperatures.

But the process remains highly speculative, and environmentalists who have legally challenged the Bush rules say the current technology requires far too much water for arid western lands to support, too much electricity that would further exacerbate global warming and that the process degrades sensitive Rocky Mountain landscapes with adverse impacts on wildlife and tourism.

“We want to avoid the booms and busts of the past,” said Salazar, a former U.S. senator from Colorado, referring to a devastating oil shale bust on the Western Slope in the 1980s. “We want to ensure the potential development is done in a way that is environmentally appropriate, and we want to assure that the American taxpayers get a fair return for the potential development of America’s public lands.”

The Bush rules called for a royalty rate starting at 5 percent to be paid by oil and gas companies to the federal government for the use of public lands. Critics claim that rate is far too low.

“There is a question about how those royalty rates could actually be set when these very important fundamental questions [about technology, water and power] have not been answered,” Salazar said, adding the 11th-hour process was done without public scrutiny and was too favorable to a handful of companies currently holding leases.

“These lease addenda conveyed lucrative benefits to the leaseholders to the exclusion of others,” he said, reading from a letter he sent to the inspector general today. “Further, the addenda were executed at the very end of the last administration and were issued in contrast to the underlying leases without any opportunity for public review or comment.”

Royal Dutch Shell holds three of the Colorado R&D leases and is currently part of an ongoing investigation by the Justice Department of former Bush Interior Secretary Gale Norton, who later accepted a job with Shell. The DOJ is investigating whether Norton, a former Colorado attorney general, gave favorable treatment to Shell in exchange for a position with the company.

“There are serious questions about whether those lease addenda are legal or whether they should be rescinded,” Salazar said, although he said he’ll reserve judgment until the inspector general’s report is completed. At that point he said Interior will either defend the rules, modify them or rescind them.

Salazar also announced the Bureau of Land Management will begin accepting an unlimited number of applications for a new round of R&D leases of up to 640 acres, or approximately one square mile. Energy companies have up to 60 days to apply for those leases, which will be managed under a new set of guidelines.

Besides being smaller than the existing leases, which are for more than 5,000 acres each, companies issued a new lease would have to submit a plan of development within nine months, and once approved by the BLM, would then have to get all state and local permits for development within 16 months.

The development plans, Salazar said, will have to address key concerns about water and power consumption and environmental impacts on wildlife, air and water quality and local communities. Water, he stressed, especially in the Colorado River Basin, is a key concern.

“This is an obviously important question in Colorado and Utah, which are arid states with limited water supplies where commercial oil shale development would have major impacts on agriculture and other uses,” Salazar said.

Got a tip? Freelance story pitch? Send us an e-mail. Follow The Colorado Independent on Twitter.