But he has concerns about air quality, 'outdated environmental assessments'
WHITNEY ROYSTER Star-Tribune environmental reporter | Posted: Thursday, April 28, 2005 12:00 am
JACKSON - Gov. Dave Freudenthal on Wednesday gave mixed reviews to a U.S. Forest Service decision to lease 44,600 acres for oil and gas exploration in the Wyoming Range.
"Scaling back the leasing is certainly a step in the right direction if the Forest Service is determined to lease in the Wyoming Range, but it is by no means a definitive step," Freudenthal said in a statement. "Too many concerns remain, at the practical forefront being air quality and outdated environmental assessments.
"But the Bridger-Teton is also a valuable place in more ways than one, and we need a management plan that recognizes that."
Freudenthal made his comments late Wednesday afternoon, after Bridger-Teton National Forest Supervisor Kniffy Hamilton announced Tuesday the agency has agreed to lease about 25 percent of the area originally examined last year for development.
Last October, after public outcry and complaints from Freudenthal and U.S. Sen. Craig Thomas, R-Wyo., forest officials pulled the area around the Wyoming Range west of Merna off the table, saying more discussions were necessary before leases were approved there.
The 175,000-acre area originally eyed included roadless areas and "no surface occupancy" areas, and those have been pulled from the current lease area.
Bruce Hinchey, president of the Petroleum Association of Wyoming, said the new acreage identified for leasing is "a little smaller than we had hoped, but at least it's a start."
He said the Forest Service had included this area of the Wyoming Range as a possibility for oil and gas leasing in the last forest plan in the early 1990s, but nothing had been acted upon.
"I think the areas they are looking at probably have the greatest potential for finding oil and gas and developing that, and it's certainly needed for the nation," he said.
The new area is next to existing oil and gas development areas.
Hinchey stopped short of calling the new proposal a "compromise," but said eliminating roadless areas from leasing makes sense because getting equipment into those areas can be problematic and costly.
Conservation groups have echoed the governor and said the Forest Service is relying on outdated studies in opening the area to leasing. They have specifically pointed to air quality concerns, saying exact effects on air quality because of development are not known.
John Gans, executive director of the Lander-based National Outdoor Leadership School, came down particularly hard on the Bridger-Teton for its decision, saying the area is central to the school's programming.
"From our perspective, the core of this new leasing package is the same as that of the first one considered last fall - it directly affects an area of the range that is critical to our winter education programs," Gans said in a statement. "We remain concerned that impact related to development will negatively affect our programs, potentially impairing our ability to operate."
Environmental reporter Whitney Royster can be reached at (307) 734-0260 or at royster@trib.com.