Governor urged to delay Roan leasing

Gargi Chakrabarty

Friday, December 7, 2007

Twenty Democratic Colorado lawmakers are urging Gov. Bill Ritter to prevent the immediate leasing of the top of the Roan Plateau for oil and natural gas drilling.

In a joint letter this week, the legislators said: "We believe that Colorado would best be served by managing the Roan Plateau for the many traditional uses for which it is already popular, including wildlife habitat, recreation lands and our Colorado heritage. . . . Rapidly advancing technologies hold great promise that most of the Roan's resources could be extracted without damaging the public lands atop the Plateau or the most sensitive habitat at its base."

The letter comes a day after provisions that would have slowed oil and gas development in Colorado were booted from a federal energy bill under consideration in the U.S. House.

One provision would have banned drilling on federal land atop the Roan.

The energy industry supports a Bureau of Land Management plan that calls for drilling atop the scenic Roan Plateau while disturbing only 1 percent of the public land at a time. Ritter in August received four months to review the BLM plan, and that period ends in the middle of this month, spokesman Evan Dreyer said.

Americans for American Energy, a Golden-based energy lobbying firm, said the letter sends a wrong signal to the industry.

"Every moment they delay a leasing decision, it is going to cost Colorado potentially $1 billion in money that could be used to literally turn around the state's fiscal condition," AAE President Greg Schnacke said.