Roan Plateau

Stepped-up natural gas drilling in northwestern Colorado can ripple-effect Denver politics, where wrangling over new drilling regulations last week took an ugly turn. But the ramifications for the nation’s largest deer and elk herds that roam there are often overlooked.
While humans like Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper and state Senate Minority Leader Josh Penry – current [...]

Colorado oil and gas industry officials continue to fall back on new state drilling regulations to fend off more county or federal scrutiny, even as their trade association challenges the Colorado rules in court. The irony appears lost on the Garfield County commissioners.

The New York Times featured a business section piece today on the battle here that pits Roan Plateau sporting and wildlife lovers against the Bill Barret Corporation, a Denver energy company that loves the natural gas reserves below the plateau.
It’s a story playing out now that asks questions about Bush Administration last-minute oil and gas [...]

For a decade now, Democratic U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette of Denver has been fighting an uphill battle to vastly increase the acreage of Colorado’s public lands designated as wilderness, which limits development and prohibits wheeled travel. With Democrats in control of the White House and Congress, she may actually have a realistic shot this time around.

An attorney for Earthjustice Tuesday told the Associated Press that Interior Secretary Ken Salazar could deem nearly 55,000 acres of Bureau of Land Management oil and gas leases on the Roan Plateau illegal and invalidate them.

Falling natural gas prices and more stringent state drilling regulations won’t deter some energy companies from going full bore on Colorado’s Western Slope, but conservation groups hope their lawsuit in U.S. District Court will at least block drilling on the Roan Plateau near Rifle.

While Colorado Sen. Ken Salazar’s name has generated conjecture as a possible Interior Department secretary in a new Barack Obama administration, the first-term Democrat said Wednesday, “It’s highly doubtful that I would serve in the Cabinet.” Salazar said he likes his current job in a conference call with reporters.

The gloves were off and the punches flew wildly at the first debate between Colorado’s two U.S. Senate candidates, Democrat Mark Udall and Republican Bob Schaffer.

The economy and energy dominated most of the hour-long debate in Parker Monday morning — the first of at least three.

Further adding to the divide was the seating arrangement [...]

Mud and chemicals discharged from five waste pits at drilling sites on the Roan Plateau are seeping into the Parachute Creek watershed. With snowmelt expected to be above normal this year, experts fear that similar pits throughout the northwest corner of the state may also overflow this spring, possibly threatening water supplies throughout the region. [...]

It’s all over the news and blogs: According to campaign manager Dick Wadhams, Republican U.S. Senate hopeful Bob Schaffer backs Gov. Bill Ritter’s plan for phased oil and gas development on the Roan Plateau. But how hard is it to board a train when it has already left the station?