Posted on 08/25/2004 8:59:39 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
WASHINGTON — Placing a heavy emphasis on energy production in the American West, the Bush administration has moved aggressively to open up broad areas of largely unspoiled federal land to oil and gas exploration.
The administration has pressed for approval of new drilling permits across the Rocky Mountains and lifted protections on hundreds of thousands of acres with gas and oil reserves in Utah and Colorado. In the process, it has targeted a number of places prized for their scenery, abundant wildlife and clean water, natural assets increasingly valuable to the region's changing economy.
Soon after taking office in 2001, the Bush White House set up a little-known task force that acts as a complaint desk for industry, passing energy company concerns directly to federal land management employees in the field. Although the creation of White House task forces is commonplace, experts on the executive branch say it is unusual to have one primarily serving the interests of a single industry.
In addition, the Bureau of Land Management has been pushed to issue drilling permits at a record pace for three of the last four years, an increase of 70% since the Clinton administration.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
LA Times? Can you beleive the RATS?
But what about the environment? the Trees and the birds???? No this can't happen!!!
"it has targeted a number of places prized for their scenery, abundant wildlife and clean water, natural assets increasingly valuable to the region's changing economy. "
Who cares about the animals and other 'natural assets'? Go to a zoo or look at pictures on a PC.
I want cheap gas and I'm willing to sacrifice these natural niceties for both me and my small children because hey - if Bush says it's the right thing to do, then it must be true.
They are drilling new wells everyplace I drive here in OK and our other wells are pumping more then I have ever seen since moving here. Some wells I would never see pump before and now I see them pumping a lot. Lot of trucks on the roads to empty the tanks -- many more than before.
Expect a new John Kerry...er...MoveOn.org ad soon comparing Bush to a small nuclear weapon...
Love those toy rigs!
Boy, that is a tiny one.
How old are you?
Kerry is for clean coal.
Kerry's clean coal ... have the maid wash it.
Wasn't there some lawsuit in OK about oil leases on Indian territory that weren't being paid. It might be that the lawsuit was settled and wells are again pumping.
The other possiblility is that the high oil prices make recovery of oil from shale profitable.
That's one of the best sights there is. It should be neat and clean, of course, but rounding a bend in a road and finding purposeful concrete, gravel, and steel at work adds considerably to the scenery.
Drilling in the west and even in ANWR won't solve our long term energy problems. Conservation and new technology can.
Timing of this is suspicious.
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Oil and gas drilling can be done and not harm the local environment. The whole work area is less than a football field and the road in is made with due regard to erosion and other disturbance.
Once the well is producing, the work area shrinks even more and the collecting tanks or pipeline are not that noticeable.
We can have affordable energy as well as a nice view of nature.
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