A Little Good News Anyway...

[Dave Smith]

From the Salt Lake Tribune......

Eastern Utah's Nine Mile Canyon, resting place to thousands of ancient Anasazi relics and rock-art panels, will escape -- at least for now -- a federal plan to vastly expand oil and gas drilling.

Late Tuesday, the Bureau of Land Management pulled back proposed lease sites from a sale scheduled for later this month. The agency deferred leases on parcels below the rim of the West Tavaputs Plateau in Nine Mile Canyon, in the Desolation Canyon area and on underground coal fields near Price.

The move came after an outcry from conservationists, the National Park Service, members of Congress and the head of President-elect Barack Obama's transition team, who said the lease sale should be halted or altered to accommodate environmental concerns.

"It was a very wise decision," said Pam Miller, chairwoman of the Nine Mile Canyon Coalition. The canyon parcels "should never have been on the gas-lease sale in the first place.

"The coalition is very grateful," she added. "Hopefully [the BLM] will include the public and make more information available if they ever decide to consider these again."

Parcels on the coal fields have been canceled permanently because underground mining takes precedence over oil and gas drilling, explained Mary Wilson, spokeswoman for Utah's BLM office.

The original lease list covered more than 360,000 acres in Utah. Now it's down to 276,000 acres. However, although many parcels have been deferred, that doesn't mean they never could be leased. The BLM holds lease sales every quarter. The next one is scheduled for March 24 after the Obama administration takes over.

This month's sale, scheduled for Dec. 19 -- the Friday before Christmas -- was announced on Election Day. But it took three more days for the BLM to post maps that the public could inspect to figure out where the leases were.

Outrage ensued.

The National Park Service discovered that many parcels near parks in Utah it thought had been deferred were back on the list and complained the BLM had ignored a long-standing practice of notifying its sister Interior Department agency well in advance of a sale date.

The Park Service objected to more than 90 leases covering 130,000-plus acres on the boundaries of Arches and Canyonlands national parks and Dinosaur National Monument. The BLM agreed to defer 22 of the most sensitive parcels near the parks -- including some within view of Delicate Arch -- but kept the rest on the sale list.

Though the deferrals offer temporary respite, sensitive public lands, including some around the White River and near Canyonlands, remain imperiled, said Steve Bloch, attorney for the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance.

The Nine Mile deferrals do not affect Denver-based Bill Barrett Corp.'s proposal to drill more than 900 natural-gas wells atop the West Tavaputs Plateau. The industrial big-rig traffic on the narrow, steep graveled canyon road would continue to churn dust that conservationists say will destroy some of the West's most stunning ancient American Indian rock art and degrade the region's air quality.

The BLM must finalize its lease sale list by Dec. 12, a week before the auction. The protest period deadline is Thursday, leaving the agency only a few days to resolve the many protests expected.

Wilson said the BLM might defer more parcels after further review, but must ensure an "appropriate amount of accessibility to energy resources necessary for the nation's security, while recognizing that special and unique nonenergy resources can be preserved."

[Richard]

It could be an economic decision as well. Chesapeake Energy is cutting its drilling plans.
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[Trismegistus]

Tis indeed good news -- but we must remember it's a lot easier to curtail exploitation during a severe and what is likely to be a prolonged recession. When our economy recovers and our energy demands again outpace current levels of resource extraction there will again be pressure to open up these lands for exploration and extraction. During this "pause" we need to develop ways to secure alternative renewable supplies of energy -- hopefully from within our borders -- and continue to seek ways to conserve. Otherwise we will be re-visiting this issue once again in the future.

Now if we could find a way to give similar protections to our public and private lands here in Arkansas. The "900 natural-gas wells atop the West Tavaputs Plateau" pale in comparison to the thousands upon thousands of wells planned for the Ozark plateau.

[Trismegistus]

"It could be an economic decision as well."

You and I share the same sentiments on this one Richard -- it's all about the money. Always has been.

[prophet]

interesting that underground coal mining takes precedence over natural gas drilling in one area. not sure how that plays out in an "environmental" battle

[Trismegistus]

Interesting indeed -- and I'm again sure it has more to do with money/power than the environment.

Reminds me when President Clinton signed the Executive Order designating 1.7 million acres of land in southwest Utah as the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument so as to put the entire area off limits to coal extraction and development. I initially thought his decision was to appease us environmentalists but as I looked further into his decision I found it was really all about Clinton being beholden to the Lippo Group -- that powerful $5 billion Indonesian conglomerate, founded and owned by the Riady family who, it turned out, had raised and funneled millions of dollars into Bill's campaign coffers.

Seems that the clean-buring high BTU, low sulfur, low ash coal found in the Kaiporowitz Plateau of Utah is not the kind of coal that can be found just anywhere. So thanks to Clinton energy production facilities are forced to look elsewhere outside our country for clean low-polluting coal. And where oh where could that be?

You got it. Indonesia. Specifically the coal fields of South Kalimantan (Borneo), Indonesia where the Lippo Group has extensive inholdings and development plans.

Look deep -- and it's nearly always about the money/power. But perhaps I'm just being cynical.

[Richard]

If you remember he made that declaration . . . not in Utah . . . but in Arizona. Senator Bennett was hopping mad about it. I thought I read at the time that Clinton did it for a $500,000 donation from environmentalists. He killed two birds with one stone. And I am not talking geologic stones.

[Dave Smith]

Hummmmmm, wonder what would life be like without a good conspiracy theory?

sorry couldn't resist!

[Richard]

Dave, you could be right. Thats why truth is so difficult to establish. See below.

[Bob Stout]

It seems that I read or heard last week that Arkansas has suspended gas well drilling until the damage drilling causes to water sources can be determined.

[Trismegistus]

The drilling goes on.... However the ADEQ placed a 6 month moratorium on issuing any further permits for “land farms” which are sites used to store wastewater and other materials from natural-gas drilling. The ADEQ wants to complete a study on the possible effects the facilities have on soil and aquifers before it resumes granting permits. However this really isn't having an adverse impact on the natural-gas drilling companies -- in fact construction of the large waste ponds used to contain the sediment-laden waste is proceeding at a rapid pace -- noticed quite a few new impoundments just this past week scattered in Cleborne, Stone and White counties. Some of these are being constructed and/or expanded under existing permits (several permits have already been approved by the ADEQ since drilling began in the Fayetteville Shale); others will simply be permitted after the moratorium is suspended. Moreover I don't think the current moratorium has any impact on using injection wells to discard the wastes.

Even the recession has had minimal impact so far -- Chesapeake is currently running about 130 drilling rigs nationwide down from a peak of 158 rigs in August. They anticipate keeping the drilling rig count over 20 in the Fayetteville Shale play, as the region is one of the least expensive areas for drilling in the nation -- cheap labor, cheap severance taxes. More expensive regions for drilling will bear the brunt of the cuts. Company spokesman Jim Gipson said in an telephone interview with the Arkansas News Bureau earlier this week, "There will still be continued development and continued commitment to the area, and no rigs are to be closed in Arkansas." And to my knowledge SEECO is also maintaining an active presence in the state.

P.S. I am far more concerned with what is happening below ground than what is going on the surface. The Fayetteville shale underlies highly karsted formations with many faults that result in chimney failures and fault plane hazards -- I've heard it mentioned that as many as 20+% of the wells drilled within the Fayetteville shale are "poorly contained". These same kinds of problems have been observed in the Barnett shale play and have already been shown to contribute to groundwater contamination. Through the use of seismic testing and horizontal drilling, these karst features and faults can be avoided -- but not with certainty. And operators can try to seal or cement the production string to minimize perforation -- but that too is not foolproof. Given the slow recharge and emergence of the ground water we may not know the extent of the environmental impact for decades, maybe even generations. And sadly deep underground there are thousands of different creatures that we may be placing at risk -- and we don't even know -- nor perhaps care -- they are there.