July 25, 2007 09:14 PM UTC

Ritter Takes Heat from Moffat County

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• by: Colorado Pols

As the Grand Junction Sentinel reported recently:

The Moffat County Commission is hopping mad Gov. Bill Ritter flew over Vermillion Basin earlier this month and announced the state is opposed to energy development there without consulting the county. Such a move, the commission said, would deny it access to a $5.85 billion natural gas reserve.

Vermillion Basin, photo courtesy Wilderness Society

“The local newspapers reported that you landed in a helicopter on Lookout Mountain overlooking Vermillion Basin and discussed the need to establish a vision for future management of the area,” the Moffat County Commissioners wrote Tuesday in a letter to Ritter, requesting a meeting with him. “Governor, we do have a vision for Vermillion Basin and take great offense to you flying from the Front Range, standing on one of our community’s mountains, and attempting to recreate a vision that we have put our sweat and blood into over the last several years.”

The Moffat County commissioners said Ritter circumvented their offer to give him a tour of the region and chose to ignore a 12-year planning process for the area that involved public lands users of all stripes.

Just as frustrating, the commissioners wrote, is that Colorado Department of Natural Resources Director Harris Sherman said in the state’s comments about the Little Snake plan that Vermillion Basin should be kept off limits to drilling for at least the next two decades while the Little Snake plan is in effect.

“We urge you to remember that although the public may use federal lands, it is the local citizens and their economy which are most directly affected by federal land decisions,” the commissioners wrote, adding they are upset that Ritter rescinded an agreement between the county and the administration of former Gov. Bill Owens…

Taking the hardest economic hit, Commissioner Tom Gray said Wednesday, will be the county’s roads and schools.

Also read a letter in the Craig Daily Press today from a Moffat County Land Use board member, expressing similar outrage at Ritter’s “snub.” Moffat has a long history of Republican, pro-energy local government. Was this move by Ritter the beginning of a campaign to assert some authority out on the politically restive Western Slope?