Oil, gas producers say Pinedale management plan like a 'straitjacket'
CHRIS MERRILL Star-Tribune environment reporter | Posted: Saturday, September 6, 2008 12:00 am
LANDER - Representatives with the petroleum industry are unhappy with a newly proposed management plan for the Pinedale region, and they are calling for a do-over on the part of the federal government.
A spokeswoman for the Independent Petroleum Association of Mountain States likened the plan to a "strait jacket" on Thursday, and said it would unnecessarily make oil and gas development impossible, for decades, on nearly 690 square miles of public lands.
The Bureau of Land Management released its final proposal for the resource management plan at the end of August, and it immediately received praise from conservation groups, because it includes protections for crucial habitats and big game migration corridors, they said.
Kathleen Sgamma, director of government affairs for IPAMS, said her organization plans to formally protest the BLM proposal, and will petition the agency to do a new environmental analysis, complete with another public comment period, before arriving at a final decision.
Officials with the BLM's Pinedale office, however, said they will not comply with that request.
In 2007, the draft version of the same plan received about 100,000 public comments, and it was blasted by Gov. Dave Freudenthal, area residents and environmentalists who argued it would inadequately protect wildlife, among other things.
The final proposal, however, contains significant changes, including a new provision that precludes mineral development on more than 440,000 acres of public lands - nearly a threefold increase from an earlier draft's "preferred" amount to be set aside.
"We know that the document won't satisfy everyone," Freudenthal said Friday. "But the development in the Pinedale area offers both a set of problems and a set of opportunities, and we think this is the right way to go."
The plan is an overarching document - nearly 1,000 pages long - intended to guide oil and gas development, livestock grazing and other activities for at least the next 20 to 25 years on about 1 million acres of surface area and 1.2 million acres of mineral resources in the Upper Green River Valley.
It will also influence the development of areas that have already undergone review, including the Pinedale Anticline and Jonah natural gas fields.
Sgamma said the changes from the draft version to the final proposal are so drastic that IPAMS believes the BLM is required, by law, to do a supplemental analysis to provide "justification for the management decision."
"We believe this rises to the level of such a dramatic change that they need to go through another round of public comment," Sgamma said.
She said the BLM's plan also greatly underestimates the amount of natural gas in the region, and the analysis is therefore "flawed."
But Bill Lanning, associate field manager for the BLM's Pinedale office, said his agency will not perform a supplemental analysis, as IPAMS is requesting, because it's simply not needed.
The draft version of the plan included an analyzed alternative to protect 606,500 acres from energy development, Lanning said.
"We are within the analysis range that was done in the draft, so a supplemental [study] is not necessary," he said.
Kellie Roadifer, the BLM's planning and environmental coordinator in Pinedale, said contrary to Sgamma's claims, the proposed plan is not overly restrictive to energy development.
"What we've actually done, in the intensive gas fields, is loosen the restrictions on drilling," Roadifer said. "It doesn't take away any of the known development."
Lanning said he believes the proposed plan represents a good compromise between the sometimes competing interests of energy resources and wildlife protection.
"What we've really tried to do with this [plan] is provide a balance for the world-class resources we have here," Lanning said. "We've got world-class gas resources and world-class wildlife resources, and we're trying to manage for both of them."
Linda Baker, coordinator for the Upper Green River Valley Coalition, spoke in support of the plan Thursday, because it acknowledges "that Wyoming residents value their abundant wildlife and vast sagebrush expanses," she said.
The areas that would be made unavailable for leasing contain some of the most important winter ranges for Wyoming mule deer, pronghorn, moose, and elk, as well as mating and nesting areas for sage-grouse, Baker said.
"Seventy percent of the Pinedale BLM resource area is already leased for oil and gas development," she said. "IPAMS wants it all, leaving nothing for Wyoming's wildlife and the people who value it."
The BLM's plan allows for the continued expansion of energy development, Baker argued, and at the same time it ensures that wildlife has a place to roam, which is in line, she said, with "Wyoming values."
"[It] ensures Wyoming growth on Wyoming's terms," she said.
The BLM will be accepting written protests to its plan until the fourth week of this month. The agency plans to publish its final decision before the end of this year.
Contact Chris Merrill at (307) 267-6722 or chris.merrill@trib.com