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The Roan reaction

Call for one-year moratorium is seven years too late

Published June 12, 2007 at midnight

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The Bureau of Land Management took seven years to develop an environmentally sensitive plan to tap the Roan Plateau's staggering supplies of natural gas and oil. That was too long, but several members of the state's congressional delegation and Gov. Bill Ritter seem to think the plan is moving forward at breakneck speed.

They want another year's delay. That is not only unnecessary, it could prevent the plateau's resources from ever reaching consumers - at least if the next administration, which would be in office by the time leases were actually issued, turns out to be hostile to the idea.

The plateau covers a third of Colorado's natural gas reserves and 4 percent of the nation's proven reserves - some 9 trillion cubic feet of the fuel. The BLM announced last week that it will finally move ahead with plans to issue leases for production, based on one of the most environmentally friendly blueprints imaginable.

Not so fast, say Sen. Ken Salazar and Reps. Mark Udall and John Salazar. The congressmen vowed to introduce an amendment to a BLM funding bill this week that would impose an additional one-year moratorium on any energy leases from the Roan Plateau.

Meantime, Ritter sent a letter to Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne on Monday backing the delay. Ritter said he needed at least another four months to review the plan.

Look, this proposal hasn't blindsided anyone. The nuts and bolts of it have been public knowledge for almost a year. And none of these critics has given any indication that he'd be willing to let energy production on the plateau move forward in 2008, or 3008, for that matter.

As we said last September, the BLM bent over backward to accommodate many of the objections from environmental and outdoor groups. Its plan would allow drilling on only 1 percent of the surface (or 350 acres) at any one time; energy companies would have to restore their drilling sites to a natural state before they could seek approval to drill at another location.

And none of the production facilities or the roads that lead to them could be visible from Interstate 70.

Given those restrictions, the natural gas industry's trade association has warned that it may be difficult to find companies to bid on the leases. Other experts appear far more optimistic - and if they're right, as appears likely, the energy production will turn out to be a boon for state and local tax coffers.

Given the experimental nature of clean-coal projects and continued public unease about nuclear power, tapping natural gas from huge deposits such as below the Roan Plateau offers the cleanest major source of usable energy we have handy. And yet it may sit there unused.

It's not as if public officials can simply throw a switch and bring thousands of megawatts and millions of BTUs of green energy to the marketplace. For the next few decades, fossil fuels will continue to dominate energy inventories. In the meantime, keeping traditional sources of domestic energy out of reach will only punish consumers and sap economic growth.

Careful drilling on the plateau should have started long ago. Delaying it for another year serves no useful purpose - unless the real goal is to keep the Roan's immense natural gas reserves stuck right where they are.