February 04, 2009 11:58 PM UTC

Sixteen-year-old land use plans basis for last Bush public land fire sale

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• by: ClubTwitty

( – promoted by Colorado Pols)

The Denver Post is reporting today on the upcoming Feb. 12 oil and gas lease sale for Colorado, which was put together as a parting gift by the Bush administration to its loyal sponsors:

The proposed Feb. 12 sale of oil and gas leases on more than 81,000 acres of national forest, federal and private land in Colorado has sparked protests from the state, counties and environmental groups.

The sale is the most controversial since the $114 million auction of Roan Plateau leases in August.

..One major criticism of the upcoming auction is that forest parcels were chosen based on 1993 information about wildlife in the areas and dated science on how drilling might affect that wildlife.

Natural gas reserves in the U.S. are currently glutted, one of the main reasons that the price of this commodity has crashed in recent months.  Selling off the public’s assets when prices are so low amounts to a ‘fire sale.’

Companies aren’t drilling–since the price of a tcf of natural gas has plummeted more than 60% since November due to the over-supply.

“There’s too much gas in the system and there’s still supply growth going on in the United States,” he told the Herald. “That will fizzle off, but ultimately storage levels and the expectations of storage levels . . . drive the whole pricing machine in North America.”

Natural gas inventories on both sides of the [U.S./Canadian] border stand at a surplus that likely will persist into the spring injection season and could see facilities near to full by late summer.

Leasing off public land and minerals now–while prices are low–will certainly enrich the corporations that purchase these leases.  These companies will undoubtedly wait to drill and produce from lands until they can get maximum profits–screwing the American people on both ends:  through depressed leasing revenues and in increased commodity costs when prices inevitably rise as companies slash production to manipulate supplies.  

Government revenues could be hit on both sides, from reduced royalties and lower land bonuses as corporations shy away from high bids on leases, said Bruce Edgelow, with ATB Financial.

The February 2009 lease sale has already drawn significant controversy when it was determined that over 33,000 acres of Colorado roadless national forests were included, in spite of a commitment by the Bush administration that it would protect these lands while Colorado worked out the details to strengthen a state-specific rulemaking for roadless lands.

Although those lease parcels were eventually pulled from the sale, the remaining leases include municipal watersheds, critical habitat, and other sensitive public lands according to the Post article.

The proposed auction has drawn opposition from San Miguel County, La Plata County, the state Division of Wildlife, and eight local and national environmental groups.

“It just seems the Forest Service tried to clean its plate and get everything up for auction,” said Hilary White, director of the Telluride- based Sheep Mountain Alliance, one of the protesting organizations.

The challenges focus on the Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre and Gunnison National Forests – where most of the acreage is located.

The parcels – including key habitat for the Gunnison sage grouse, the Colorado cutthroat trout, the Canada lynx and mule deer – were identified using that forest’s last management plan – done in 1993.

One of the posters on the Post website has a different take on local government’s and environmentalist’s effort to protect the public.

What the environmentalist obstruction of energy production does to our economy is simply criminal. It is the theft of America’s future, its prosperity and our security by socialist whacko’s and the elected officials who are in bed with them.

How exactly protecting the public’s assets amounts to ‘socialism’ the poster does not elaborate on.  And while American taxpayers and consumers stand to be the big losers, the Bureau of Land Management, which manages the public’s mineral estate is washing its hands of any responsibility, the Post is reporting.

While the Forest Service identified the parcels, it is the federal Bureau of Land Management that will be running the auctions.

“We are just the agent, the Realtor,” said BLM spokesman Steven Hall.

Let’s see–forcing the public to sell off its assets at bargain basement rates and against its will so it can then buy them back at inflated prices in the future, all based on terribly outdated appraisals of the impacted resource’s value…what’s that called in the realty world?  Malpractice?