Raising fees and cleanup insurance while slowing leasing heartens environmentalists but provokes industry criticism.
Western Energy Alliance
Posted inEnvironment
BLM shifts green on 2 million Western Slope acres, setting up Colorado clash of environment vs. oil
Far bigger chunks of pristine public lands would be walled off from extraction, as federal land managers are ordered to consider climate impacts of activities on land spanning Eagle, Mesa and Pitkin counties
Posted inBusiness
Oil, gas, coal mining on federal land in Colorado generates $393M in revenue, most in 14 years
Increasing royalties for the first time since the 1920s is credited for some of the extra revenue due to Colorado governments this fiscal year
Posted inBusiness, Climate, Economy, Energy, Environment, News, Outdoors, Politics and Government
Biden administration says oil, gas sales damage climate — but won’t stop them on public lands in the West
By Matthew Brown, The Associated Press BILLINGS, Mont. — The Biden administration is planning to sell oil and gas leases on huge tracts of public land in the U.S. West, despite the Interior Department’s conclusion that doing so could cost society billions of dollars in climate change impacts, according to government documents. Administration officials announced […]
Posted inNews
Joe Biden to pause oil and gas sales on public lands, call for conservation plan championed by Michael Bennet
By Matthew Daly and Ellen Knickmeyer, The Associated Press WASHINGTON — In the most ambitious U.S. effort to stave off the worst effects of climate change, President Joe Biden is aiming to cut oil, gas and coal emissions and double energy production from offshore wind turbines through executive orders Wednesday. The orders awaiting his signature […]
Posted inBusiness, Climate, Economy, Energy, Environment, News, Politics and Government
Joe Biden’s pause on oil and gas development on public lands splits conservationists, industry
Conservationists are cheering the Biden administration’s 60-day pause on new energy development on public lands as a chance to overhaul an antiquated leasing program that has not been modified in decades. Oil and gas producers are not happy and they are warning of severe economic shocks from the decision announced Thursday. “Bowing to the environmental […]
Posted inColoradans, Energy, Environment, News, Outdoors, Politics and Government
Scattering BLM will be good for policy, boss William Pendley says. Not with him at the helm, advocacy groups argue.
Colorado will get more of the Bureau of Land Management’s Washington staff under the Trump administration’s proposed agency reorganization than any other Western state — but whether those employees will have decision-making authority is a hotly contested point. The plan involves scattering almost 300 positions, some currently unfilled, across 11 Western states. Of the 222 […]
Posted inBusiness, Energy, Environment, News, Outdoors, Politics and Government
Trump’s “energy dominance” push changing plans for 3 million acres of Colorado land, local stewards say
Federal land managers are about to close the door on public input to decade-long resource management plans for sweeping swaths of public land in Colorado that now reflect the Trump Administration’s focus on boosting domestic energy production. That focus conflicts with new state laws aimed at protecting wildlife and improving air quality, which has united […]
Posted inBusiness, Energy, Environment, Growth, Outdoors
Are Colorado’s oil and gas and recreation industries all that different? Economists say no — and we need to protect them both
When the mines closed and the railroad left town in the 1980s, “pretty much everyone in Salida was unemployed,” Mayor P.T. Wood remembers. And when the West Slope oil and gas industry took a nosedive in 2014, sales tax revenue in Fruita plummeted 90%. Both communities have filled at least part of the void left […]
Posted inOpinion, Opinion Columns
Opinion: Restore our national parks using oil and natural gas
On July 4th the line of cars trying to enter Rocky Mountain National Park reached a mile long. It’s a symptom of the growing popularity of public lands across the West as people increasingly enjoy the great outdoors. The toll is adding up, however, as national parks struggle to keep up with the yearly wear […]