RSSPrinted letters, July 20, 2012
As a member of one of the organizations state Rep. Ray Scott denounced for having instigated Judge Marcia Krieger’s decision, I have to respond to his op-ed piece of July 8.
Claiming a need for natural gas and the jobs that drilling for the resource will produce, Rep. Scott insisted that the Roan Plateau be opened to drilling for gas immediately. Does he not know that drilling for gas is cyclical and subject to supply and demand? Is he unaware that private lands on the plateau are already being drilled? There is no such urgency.
The Bureau of Land Management’s plan for the plateau inadequately protects its many other, non-mineral resources. These include deer and elk herds that are important to the economically significant hunting and outdoor industries in the area. The plateau is one of the top four places in the state for biological diversity, and it is home to a pure strain of Colorado River Cutthroat trout — a trout that occupies only about 10 percent of its original habitat. My chapter of Trout Unlimited has been working (with money and physical labor) for more than 20 years to protect a population of those trout on the plateau.
Drilling near the streams that these rare fish inhabit would certainly put them at risk. Judge Krieger’s decision requires the agency to revisit its plan in order to give more protection to these other resources.
Scott’s demand would despoil the plateau as unrestrained drilling has done in parts of Wyoming. BLM’s plan would allow a company to drill 3,000 wells atop the plateau, and that’s what the company plans to do. Regardless of the best-management practices used, drilling that many wells would fundamentally change the Roan Plateau. This is acknowledged in BLM internal memoranda and buried in the environmental impact statement.
Judge Krieger observed that local community input was largely ignored by BLM. Her decision provides an opportunity for BLM and Colorado communities and concerned organizations to get it right.
We look forward to a plan for the Roan Plateau that does not further jeopardize or harm its special features, even as it makes meaningful amounts of the area’s minerals available for careful development.
JOHN TRAMMELL
Grand Junction
John Leane’s economic plan shows he’s a liberal Democrat
John Leane’s “three-point plan,” as reported on June 29 in The Daily Sentinel, leaves little doubt in my mind as to what he is — a liberal Democrat. He may be running for county commissioner as an “unaffiliated,” but his economic plan gives him away.
Part of his three-point plan is to give $50 to $5,000 rewards to small businesses who hire four new full-time employees. Huh? Do the math. Does Leane have a clue what it costs to hire a full-time employee?
Most businesses are still struggling under today’s economy and, with the unknown impacts of Obamacare, are reluctant to hire. I don’t think there will be many jumping for this carrot.
What Mesa County businesses need is greater local control. Get the federal government out of our way, and let us develop our abundant energy resources. Leane’s plan doesn’t utter a peep on this subject.
His next big idea is to boost tourism with $50,000-something for the Grand Junction Visitor and Convention Bureau. Thanks a bunch!
Gov. John Hickenlooper and his buds on the Front Range are already singing this song. Their plan — make western Colorado their playground with plenty of maids and busboys. Then maybe they can get their hands on more of our water. Brilliant!
The final element in his plan is to create a part-time position of “business and development coordinator.” Is anyone seeing a pattern here?
He wants to throw around money we don’t have and increase the size of government. Personally, I’m not buying his “middle of the road” fairy tale. He never mentions keeping taxes low as an incentive to growth and development.
He can call himself “unaffiliated” all day, but if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it’s a big “D” Democrat.
CHARLES L. GREEN
Grand Junction
Consumer choice on health leads to greater competition
I was pleased to read the Tom Purcell column in Friday’s Daily Sentinel regarding the Affordable Care Act and HSAs. Purcell points out the positive aspects of a high deductible health insurance policy coupled with an HSA (health savings account).
As he states, when consumers choose their health care products based on cost, a competitive nature is brought to the marketplace. Less expensive products are purchased and unneeded products tend to be avoided.
It should be noted that when consumers are paying the bill directly, not only will they make good decisions about the services they need, but they also tend to make better long-range decisions, employing exercise and better diet.
This in turn will result in a reduced amount of health care needed for individuals and a further reduction in cost.
CONRAD COLE
Grand Junction
COMMENTS
Commenting is not available in this channel entry.Maybe if John Trammell bothered to know the background of who he was talking about, he might not make blanket statements. Ray Scott has spent over 30 years in the Oil and Gas Industry. I think he can claim a far greater knowledge of the in and outs of the Industry than Mr. Trammell and his environmental activists can claim.
Here is the reality. There are 4000 high paying jobs waiting on drilling on the Roan Plateau. Do you think Trout Unlimited, Earthjustice or any of the other environmental groups are going to bring any jobs, let alone 4000 high paying jobs to the Western Slope?
Reality is we are an energy economy, that is where we get our income. The reason we have 20% real unemployment is because of groups like Trout Unlimited. The do not care about the economy of the Western Slope, they only care about their activist agenda.
So we have the choice. Environmentally safe drilling approved by the BLM before the Obama Administration brought their Environmental Activist agenda to bear which brings the Western Slope a growing economy, thousands of jobs and millions in revenue. Or we can choose to remain in the environmentalist controlled depression our valley is in.
I believe that you are making up your numbers and certainly not considering the reality of the Free Market, the glut of natural gas, shale plays back east closer to infrastructure and market, and the near-historic lows of natural gas prices at the hub. I do find it curious how some who consider themselves ‘conservative’ have such difficulties understanding basic economic mechanisms. Trout Unlimited, of course, has decades of on-the-ground hands-on experience on the Roan Plateau helping to provide and enhance habitat for the strains of genetically pure CR cuttrroat trout that exist there, about the purest strains left anywhere in the world. Meanwhile, as noted above, there is so much natural gas currently on the market in the US that wells are being shut in even in the Marcelleus and companies like Chesepeake are dumping assets left and right.
We certainly have time to get it right at the Roan Plateau, and can end up with a plan that is much more protective than the Bush-era plan while still allowing access to substantial gas reserves. Certainly there is no rush and Colorado would benefit from such a sensible and balanced approach.
Mr. Trammell
Hope you read Saturday’s article unemployment figures! If not, Here’s some interesting info for you…
“In neighboring Utah, the unemployment rate was 6 percent and the state’s job count rose 2.6 percent after rising 2.4 percent in May. Utah Gov. Gary Herbert attributed the growth rate to development approvals in the Uintah Basin and noted that the fastest-growing area of employment is in natural resources, up 8.5 percent.”
You must be one of those well-to do environmentalists that doesn’t need to work and has nothing better to do than help stifle badly needed enegy jobs.