BLM offers first leases in Jack Morrow Hills under new management plan
JEFF GEARINO Southwest Wyoming bureau | Posted: Tuesday, March 18, 2008 12:00 am
GREEN RIVER - It's either a bad move or about time.
After more than a decade, new energy leases will be offered for sale next month in the controversial Jack Morrow Hills area of southwest Wyoming.
A loose church/conservation alliance said Monday the Bureau of Land Management lease sale is a bad idea that ought to be postponed.
Six organizations - including the Wyoming Association of Churches, the Wyoming Outdoor Council and the Biodiversity Conservation Alliance - have filed a formal protest of the BLM's proposal to lease two parcels in the northwest portion of the Bureau of Land Management's Jack Morrow Planning Area.
The lease sale is scheduled for April 1 in Cheyenne.
If the sale proceeds, it would mark the first lease parcels offered by the agency in the Jack Morrow Hills under the auspices of the BLM's new management plan. The BLM deferred mineral leasing decisions in the hills in 1997 until the new management plan could be developed.
"Wyoming has sacrificed enough of its natural heritage for the world's energy cravings," said Rev. Warren Murphy, director of the Association of Churches.
Outdoor Council program director Bruce Pendery said given the wide range of "special values" and important resources in the hills, the BLM shouldn't engage in leasing in the area.
"There are approximately 13.5 million acres of federally owned minerals already under lease in Wyoming, and there are 263 other lease parcels available in this lease sale alone," Pendery said in a release. "So we do not think holding back on leasing the 3,000 or so acres in these two lease parcels is going to harm oil and gas development efforts."
Bruce Hinchey with the Petroleum Association of Wyoming called the protest "nothing new." He noted there has been oil and gas development in the Jack Morrow Hills since the 1920s and said energy companies have done a good job of protecting the world-class resources in the area.
"It's interesting because it seems like lately, no matter where somebody wants to buy a lease or try to drill … somebody objects to it, so (the protest) is no surprise," Hinchey said in a phone interview.
"Once again, let me reiterate that the companies are pretty responsible," he said. "Plus, they'll have to jump through all kinds of hoops if they were to get the leases to ever drill anywhere to protect the environment and everything else that is out there."
But Duane Short with the Biodiversity Conservation Alliance said the BLM's attached stipulations to protect sage grouse in the area "don't go far enough" to protect the species.
"A great deal of recent research has shown that these kinds of stipulations are simply not effective for protecting sage grouse," he said.
In September 2006, Gov. Dave Freudenthal asked Wyoming's congressional delegation to consider sponsoring legislation to buy back natural gas leases in the Jack Morrow Hills. The delegation declined, saying the development plan for the hills needed time to play out before more stringent environmental protections are enacted.
Southwest Wyoming bureau reporter Jeff Gearino can be reached at 307-875-5359 or at gearino@tribcsp.com.