Sportsmen For Responsible Energy

DENVER, CO --(Ammoland.com)- The Bureau of Land Management’s proposed rules on public disclosure of the contents of hydraulic fracturing fluids, as well as the handling of wastewater and the integrity of well casings, represent a step forward in ensuring responsible energy development on public lands, a sportsmen’s coalition said Monday.

Sportsmen for Responsible Energy Development has called on the BLM to make sure resources such as water, fish and wildlife are conserved when oil and gas are developed on public lands. The draft rule on hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” is a prudent response to concerns about the potential impacts of drilling and the handling of drilling fluids on the lands that are crucial to the West’s water supplies, fish and wildlife, said Brad Powell, energy director for Trout Unlimited’s Sportsmen’s Conservation Project. TU is a member of the SFRED coalition.

The proposed federal rule would require public disclosure of the chemicals in fracking fluids before and during drilling. Companies stating that the fracking mixtures are proprietary would have to explain why the information should be kept from the public.

The proposal also addresses testing to ensure the integrity of well casings, pipes placed down a borehole and held in place by cement to keep the oil and gas from mingling with anything else.

The document includes rules for safely storing and disposing of waste from recovered fluids.

Some states, including Wyoming and Colorado, have approved regulations requiring disclosure of fracking fluids’ contents as increased drilling has raised concerns about the chemicals used.

“Complete and timely public disclosure is an important step toward ensuring that public health, water quality, fish and wildlife are protected from contamination by hydraulic fracturing,” said Michael Saul, attorney with the National Wildlife Federation, also an SFRED member. “BLM is moving in the right direction by mandating disclosure of all chemicals and by codifying the prohibition on unlined storage pits.”

“Sportsmen are pleased that our federal decision makers recognize the need to increase transparency during all phases of energy planning and development,” said Tom Franklin, senior director of science and policy for the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, an SFRED member. “We will continue to work closely with the administration, Congress, industry and our conservation partners to assure that public lands energy projects employ a science-based approach that sustains our nation’s fish and wildlife resources and outdoors opportunities.”

Sportsmen for Responsible Energy Development is a coalition of more than 500 businesses, organizations and individuals dedicated to conserving irreplaceable habitats so future generations can hunt and fish on public lands. The coalition is led by Trout Unlimited, the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership and the National Wildlife Federation.

Wheat grows side by side with active Oil Wells..

AmmoLand Gun News

Washington, DC --(Ammoland.com)- It is the crime of the century that America, home to some of the world’s greatest reserves of coal, natural gas and oil, is being deliberately destroyed by the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of the Interior as they do everything in their power to restrict access and drive energy producers out of business.

It is common sense that a nation that cannot produce sufficient electricity to turn on its lights and power its manufacturing sector will be destroyed if current Obama administration regulations and actions continue. Our vital transportation sector and all others that utilize petroleum-based products will suffer, too.

While President Obama babbles about millionaires and billionaires, everyone will be impoverished by the loss of jobs and revenue our energy sector produces now and can produce in the future.

This isn’t an “energy policy.” It’s a “no-energy policy” and it is a guarantee of economic disaster.

Obama’s decision to reject a permit for Canada’s XL Keystone pipeline is just one example. It is a job-killer and a revenue-killer. There are thousands of pipelines serving America’s energy needs and the XL Keystone pipeline would ensure that Canada’s own vast energy reserves would flow to America.

It is one of our key trade partners and Obama has slapped it in the face.

In early January, Ken Salazar, the Secretary of the Interior, announced a new 20-year, million-acre ban on uranium mining for federal lands in Arizona, despite the fact that these lands hold the highest-grade of known uranium deposits in the United States. It is an outrage that a new GOP-Congress will have to overturn if the nation is to be assured of sufficient uranium to power its nuclear plants and for weapons development. If the ban remains, these uranium resources would be inaccessible until 2023!

Tom Pyle, president of the Institute for Energy Research said that Salazar’s announcement “further compounds a man-made energy crisis that has been planned and executed in Washington, D.C.”

At the same time we are learning of enormous natural gas discoveries that can reduce our energy bills and turn sleeping little towns into boomtowns, environmental organizations have launched a vast propaganda campaign against “fracking”, a technology that has been safely used for more than fifty years. Their claims about dangers to the nation’s supply of fresh water are baseless. Their claims that fracking has caused earthquakes in Ohio are absurd.

Need it be said that the Environmental Protection Agency has turned its eyes on fracking and is working on a report due later this year that will likely call for harsh crackdowns on its use and more regulations to throttle the expansion of natural gas extraction?

The EPA has just released a report of those power plants that top the list of its regulation of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. There is no basis in science to justify the reduction of CO2. Indeed, since it is a gas on which all vegetation depends, much as oxygen is vital to all animal life, reducing it would impair great crop yields and healthier forests.

These regulations are based on the global warming hoax that blamed CO2 for warming the earth. That is utterly false. The Earth is currently in a perfectly natural cooling cycle and the climate of the Earth is almost entirely based on the Sun—solar radiation—along with the actions of oceans, clouds, and even volcanic activity that spews tons of particulates into the atmosphere.

Coal-fired power plants account for fifty percent of all the electricity generated in the United States. Fifty percent! And yet the EPA is determined to shut down dozens of them providing that vital factor in the lives of all Americans and the economy, nor does this take into account the billions that energy producers have spent to upgrade their technology to reduce emissions.

The Obama administration fuel economy agenda, a call for 54.5 miles per gallon ignores simple physics. There is a finite amount of energy a gallon of gas can generate. If you dilute it with ethanol as is currently required, you get even less mileage. The administration is trying to circumvent Congress by issuing standards based on regulating “greenhouse gas emissions”, but there is no need for this. It is a false argument.

The Center for Automotive Research says that the proposed new standards would cause the retail price of average motor vehicles to increase by more than $11,000.

Americans and the nation’s future are being victimized by Obama administration policies. The 18th annual Index of Economic Freedom, was released on January 12th by The Heritage Foundation and The Wall Street Journal, measures the many factors that contribute to the economic health of a nation—things like property rights, regulatory efficiency, open markets, free trade and labor policies.

Economic freedom is declining worldwide as governments try to spend their way out of the global recession. The United States fell to 10th place. In 2009 it ranked 6th, in 2010 it was 8th, and in 2011, it was 9th.

We are witnessing the deliberate murder of a superpower.

c Alan Caruba, 2011

About:
Alan Caruba’s commentaries are posted daily at “Warning Signs” his popular blog and thereafter on dozens of other websites and blogs. If you love to read, visit his monthly report on new books at Bookviews.

White House and Democrats are clueless about reinvigorating the economy. But they have proven they know how to kill jobs, prosperity and hope. Their energy policies are especially destructive.

AmmoLand Gun News

USA --(Ammoland.com)- Our nation’s economic growth may finish an anemic 2% on the year.

Faced with looming taxes and regulations, few companies are expanding, hiring or buying equipment. More than 14 million Americans are unemployed, excluding the nearly 9 million who have been forced to take part-time jobs, or the 2.5 million who’ve given up on finding work.

Meanwhile, 140,000 have been added to government payrolls, and the nation is spending $4 billion a day more than it’s taking in.

That is unacceptable, demoralizing – and unnecessary.

The White House and Democrats are clueless about reinvigorating the economy. But they have proven they know how to kill jobs, prosperity and hope. Their energy policies are especially destructive.

As President Obama made clear, under his tutelage electricity costs would “necessarily skyrocket,” gasoline prices would soar, “green” energy would become the law of the land, and he would “fundamentally transform” America. He is keeping his promise.

America’s vast storehouses of untapped oil, gas, coal and uranium could generate millions of jobs and hundreds of billions in revenues. Electricity generation industries and the factories and other businesses that depend on reliable, affordable energy could do likewise, if they were unshackled from excessive regulations that often actually harm health and environmental quality.

Instead, the Environmental Protection Agency, Departments of Energy and the Interior, and other government bureaucracies continue to impose a near-total shutdown of onshore and offshore oil and gas leasing. They drag their feet or simply reject drilling permits, display antipathy toward hydraulic fracturing to tap our 100-year supply of shale gas, and impose truckloads of punitive air and water rules designed to shutter dozens of coal-burning power plants.

The President claims he will “pare back regulation” by several billion dollars – out of an estimated $1 trillion in total annual regulatory compliance costs. EPA alone promised “$126 million” in supposed paperwork reductions, while imposing several hundred billion dollars in new EPA regulations.

Mr. Obama finally suspended EPA’s proposed ozone rules, which many had warned would be the most expensive environmental edicts in history. But they will be back with a vengeance after the 2012 elections. Meanwhile, bowing to EPA and environmentalist pressure, he postponed action on the Keystone XL pipeline, which would have created 20,000 almost-shovel-ready construction jobs.

Now EPA wants 230,000 new bureaucrats, just to process future carbon dioxide emission permits, based on bogus climate chaos models and scenarios. Even our worst nightmares cannot fathom the job-killing compliance costs this would impose on the 6,000,000 businesses these regulations would affect.

Again using questionable to fraudulent assertions about catastrophic manmade climate change to justify its actions, EPA is also demanding 54.5 mpg fuel economy standards – which will result in thousands of deaths and millions of injuries, as cars are further downsized and plasticized.

Even businesses on the leading edge of the “green revolution,” crony capitalism and lobbying for dollars are faring poorly. After lapping up $1.5 billion in government red-ink subsidies and loan guarantees, three US solar companies filed for bankruptcy and fired over 2,000 workers. And still the Energy Department shoveled more billions of tax dollars into more wind and solar projects, despite voter objections.

DOE also sponsored programs that cost $20 million to create 14 jobs and weatherize four Seattle houses in a year. It spent $80 billion to create 225,000 “clean energy” jobs – at $356,000 apiece. It shells out $6 billion a year to grow corn on an area bigger than Indiana, and convert it into ethanol that gets a third less mileage per gallon than gasoline.

This isn’t “green” energy. It’s “greenbacks” energy. It requires perpetual infusions of taxpayer money, confiscated from hard-working, productive sectors, and given to companies that have better political connections. That is unconscionable, and unsustainable.

America must promote and permit projects that actually generate energy, jobs and revenues. It must reward and encourage companies that provide affordable 24/7 energy to power virtually everything we make, grow, transport and do.

Unleashing America’s vast supplies of shale oil and gas, conventional petroleum, coal and nuclear energy isn’t a magic potion. But it is a vital part of the solution to what ails our nation.

The petroleum industry alone currently supports some 9.2 million jobs, but could do much more. Recent studies by Wood McKenzie, ICF International and other analysts conclude that opening currently off-limits onshore and offshore areas could generate an additional $800 billion in government revenues and another 1.4 million jobs, by 2030. That includes primary jobs for roughnecks on rigs; secondary jobs in steel making, construction, pipelines, refineries, transportation and other sectors; and indirect jobs in hotel, restaurant, retail and other sectors that benefit from the increased energy, payrolls and economic activity.

We could do likewise with coal, nuclear and hydroelectric projects.

We need American energy for American jobs – tapping resource bounties to help balance the budget, drive down unemployment and get the country going again.

We can and must protect human health and environmental quality – from real threats, not exaggerated, speculative or computer-generated threats. We can and must do so without raising energy and business costs even higher, killing more jobs, and stifling private sector and government revenue opportunities.

Over-regulation brings energy poverty and blackouts, destroys jobs, impairs families’ living standards and nutrition, leads to foreclosures and homelessness, increases stress and alcohol abuse, makes it harder for families to afford proper heating and air conditioning, and harms people’s health and welfare.

Those impacts must be fully considered, along with putative benefits of current and future regulations. If laws and rules don’t pass muster, they need to be rewritten, rejected or repealed.

Subsidies do not create jobs. Getting overzealous government out of the way, ending government deficit spending, letting business work within a sensible regulatory system, ensuring that companies have the affordable energy they need – that creates permanent, sustainable jobs and brings renewed prosperity. That generates revenue streams that curb the need to raise taxes on productive companies and workers.

As election year 2012 dawns, voters must demand that presidential and congressional candidates explain how they will reform our legal and regulatory system, to tap US energy bounties, while protecting environmental values from actual risks, and ignoring exaggerated, imagined and invented dangers.

Unaccountable politicians, bureaucrats and environmental ideologues have strangled our economy long enough. We the People must now lay the foundation for producing more domestic energy, creating jobs, and ensuring that our children can look forward to a brighter future.

Paul Driessen

American energy can ignite America’s renewal, and restore American jobs, opportunity and prosperity. Voters need to send Congress, the White House and EPA a message:

We need American resources for an American recovery. Slash the crippling regulations. Drill here in America. Produce affordable energy, to create jobs and fix our economy. Do it now!

About:
AmmoLand contributor, Paul Driessen, is senior policy adviser for the Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow and Congress of Racial Equality and author of Eco-Imperialism: Green power – Black death.

The Center For Vision & Values

Grove City, PA --(Ammoland.com)- Marcellus Shale is becoming a household name, from discussions around kitchen tables to town halls with (sometimes) angry citizens.

Endless media coverage, economic analysis, geological prediction, business maneuvers and political debate encompass this complex topic.

Even the experts concede that the breadth of this issue will only be fully understood after gas production continues for many more years.

An important effect of natural gas production in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia is simple: jobs.

In contrast to America’s chronically high unemployment rate, the Marcellus-generated job activity within these regions can only be described as a gold rush. Thousands of trucks, ranging from semi-tankers to white diesel crew-cab pickups, have flooded the streets and back roads of many towns. While billions of dollars in federal spending have done little to nothing to improve jobs and infrastructure, the dollars invested into these reborn communities, once hurting by economic depression, are all thanks to subsurface layers of dirty black shale.

Infrastructure improvements and job creation are not the only byproducts of Marcellus Shale drilling. Land owners are likewise reaping tremendous benefits. Three years ago, some land leased for gas production had a market value of $10 an acre, tops. The driving market force of competition has caused that number to surge, with landowners negotiating payment terms upwards of $3,000 an acre with 15 percent or better royalty rates.

That’s cash in hand, checks in the mail, and escrow in the bank.

And still, a mere one percent of expected wells have been drilled within the Marcellus-rich region, with a potential of 200,000 wells. The full potential offers a source of American energy that is hard to estimate. The pipeline system needed to transport the hydrocarbons has only begun to be constructed, with boom-centers of crackers and compressors along the way.

This could portend an economic viability extending 100 years.

This phenomenon can be understood in very basic economic terms. The development of Marcellus Shale could only happen in America. Consider: citizens in this nation have long enjoyed not only the unique freedom to pursue happiness but the liberty to own property. Although other portions of the globe could be cashing in shale —namely China, Canada, and Europe— an individual citizen’s control of land, even to the depths of thousands of feet, is unique to the United States. Furthermore, it is only through private industry and corporations that the efficient technology of hydrofracturing is made available. Companies like Chesapeake Energy, Range Resources, Hess, BP, and Consol are all publicly traded and held liable to their creditors, and thus are making private business decisions for their own sake and profit.

Of course, also part of the American phenomenon is the government’s regulatory role, which plays a crucial role in Marcellus development —or the lack thereof. Look no further than the state of New York, where a moratorium on natural gas exploration has capped economic activity. Yet, gas producers remain cautiously optimistic. If Governor Rendell were still in office, things might look different. For the time being, Republican Governor Tom Corbett has only proposed an impact fee on natural gas production, of which the tax portion is not expected to survive state legislation. Maybe Governors

John Kasich and Earl Ray Tomblin in bordering Ohio and West Virginia will take note.

Exploration and production of Marcellus Shale is certainly a sign of the times in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia, exhibited by the boom towns that have been revived from drilling activity. These times are producing the creation of real jobs and money infused into local communities, and this is just the start. No doubt, Marcellus drilling also provides distinct challenges, which are being hotly debated, and which indeed need to be carefully considered.

For now, though, the economic benefits in these dire economic times are undeniable.

About:
Steve Irwin is a senior at Grove City College and a student fellow with The Center for Vision & Values.

Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership

WASHINGTON --(Ammoland.com)- The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit found that the Department of the Interior adhered to federal law in its decision to vastly expand energy development on wildlife-rich public lands located on southwestern Wyoming’s Pinedale Anticline, the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership announced today.

The TRCP suit, filed in 2008, contended that the Bureau of Land Management failed to implement “adaptive environmental management” and mitigation activities as committed to in decision documents for the Pinedale Anticline natural gas project, which comprises crucial winter range for one of the state’s largest mule deer populations and prime sage grouse habitat in the Upper Green River Basin. Mule deer numbers have declined by more than half in the project area in the decade since development began.

The court ruled that the BLM properly considered a reasonable range of alternatives in the 2008 record of decision, or ROD, for the project, even though it did not consider an alternative that would restore wildlife to levels consistent with the initial ROD, released in 2000. The court further found BLM’s prior commitments could not be enforced because the new 2008 ROD superseded those commitments and BLM was entitled to a presumption that it would implement the 2008 ROD to ensure against unnecessary and undue degradation.

“Essentially, federal law allows the Bureau of Land Management to permit expanded energy development even in the face of declining wildlife populations. If this is the law, then law needs to be changed,” said TRCP President and CEO Whit Fosburgh. “Mule deer populations in the area have declined precipitously since development began in 2000 and since the 2008 ROD. No one disputes this fact. These losses are unacceptable to sportsmen and should outrage anyone who cares about the conscientious administration of fish, wildlife and public lands.”

In its ruling, the court also found that the agency fully considered the impact of the project on hunting in the region and that the mitigation measures adopted by BLM on balance would comply with BLM’s duties under the Federal Land Policy and Management Act. The TRCP maintains that BLM decisions regarding development in the anticline consistently ignore current science about the impacts of natural gas projects on mule deer and a host of other species important to sportsmen.

“As defined by the court, the bottom line in the Pinedale Anticline natural gas project is that the federal government has the discretion to take whatever action it deems appropriate, even at the expense of responsible fish and wildlife management, the interests of citizens, including hunters and anglers, and in conflict with the multiple-use approach the BLM is legally bound to uphold,” said Dr. Rollin Sparrowe, TRCP board member and past leader of the Pinedale Anticline Working Group Wildlife Task Group. “This is unacceptable.

“If the BLM can oversee oil and gas development on our public lands with little or no regard to fish and wildlife populations,” continued Sparrowe, a former U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist who lives near the project site, “then the public needs stronger laws or regulations to protect our valuable and shared natural resources. The TRCP remains committed to ensuring that responsive policy measures addressing these deficiencies are enacted.

“The mule deer population on the Pinedale Anticline is the most intensively studied herd in the American West being affected by unusually intensive gas development,” Sparrowe stated. “Ten years of research and monitoring indicate a negative downward trend and an overall decline of close to 60 percent – a number that was confirmed before the documented die-offs from last year’s severe winter. Losses are expected to increase even further this year. Data also show that surrounding mule deer herds not affected as much by gas drilling all are in better condition. Further declines will occur as the rest of the drilling moves into new, important habitats. The unique negative influence on this Mesa Herd is winter drilling, which proves without a doubt that such drilling is incompatible with sustaining a wintering deer herd.”

“The TRCP is in favor of sustainable energy development on public lands, but the project on the Pinedale Anticline clearly is degrading wildlife and hunting opportunities,” concluded Fosburgh. “The real tragedy in Pinedale is that energy development could have been accomplished without these huge losses in mule deer and other wildlife – but the BLM and the drillers insisted on a pace of development that turned our public lands into an industrial zone and hammered a once-iconic mule deer herd, likely past the point of recovery. American citizens, whether or not they ever will hunt in southwestern Wyoming, must live with the disastrous results of the Pinedale debacle for generations to come.”

The TRCP supports responsible public-lands energy development that is pursued in accordance with federal law and ensures citizens’ continued ability to access our lands and natural resources.

Learn more about the TRCP’s work in support of responsible energy development.

Inspired by the legacy of Theodore Roosevelt, the TRCP is a coalition of organizations and grassroots partners working together to preserve the traditions of hunting and fishing.

AmmoLand Gun News

USA --(Ammoland.com)- America has been under attack since Barack Obama took the oath of office on January 20, 2009.

The primary target has been the nation’s ability to generate energy for electricity and transportation, without which this nation will slide into Third World status and economic decline.

This appears to be the goal of this administration from the President to his Secretaries of Energy and Interior, to his Director of the Environmental Protection Agency.

There is no other rational explanation for what they are doing.

We are days away from the latest Environmental Protection Agency assault in the form of the “MACT” rule allegedly to reduce mercury and other emissions that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission says will reduce electricity generation in America by about 81 gigawatts in the years ahead.

A recent Wall Street Journal editorial said “this could compromise the reliability of the electric system if as much as 8% of generating capacity is subtracted from the grid.”

The Wall Street Journal reports that eleven Governors have written the EPA to ask that it delay the final rule in November. Twenty-five state Attorneys Generals have filed suit “to lift a legal document known as a consent decree that the EPA is using as a fig leaf for its political goals.”

As but one example, in Illinois, Ameron announced the planned shutdown of its Meredosia and Hutsonville energy centers, The Meredosia center generates 369 megawatts. The Hutsonville center has a generating capacity of 151 megawatts.

The EPA, even before the Obama administration, has been using the 1970 Clean Air Act to bludgeon the nation’s ability to access the energy resources required to generate electricity, primarily coal that provides 50% of such generation, and oil that fuels our transportation capability.

In late October, James J. Mulva, the CEO of Conoco-Phillips, addressed the subject of the growing discoveries of natural gas being found throughout the nation. “More than 600,000 Americans already explore, produce, store and produce natural gas, according to consultancy IHS Global Insight.”

At least 15 states now produce shale gas and others may join them,” noting that the largest shale area, the Marcellus which covers much of the Northeast” “already supports 140,000 jobs in Pennsylvania alone.”

The Obama administration, beginning with the president’s admitted goal of shutting down as much of the coal industry as possible, has demonstrated his intention of deterring the provision of energy. When the BP Oil rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico, the administration imposed a moratorium on all drilling. The decreased production cost 360,000 barrels a day in addition to lost jobs related to oil drilling in the Gulf. Rigs that are needed to drill have since been moved to other sites around the world.

The U.S. is home to more than 150 billion barrels of conventional oil that has the capability of generating thousands of new jobs if access to it was permitted. The most immediate result has been the rise in the cost of gasoline at the pump. Two courts ordered that the moratorium be lifted.

Oil companies currently pay more than $30 billion a year in federal, state, and local taxes. Meanwhile the Obama administration has been wasting billions in loan guarantees to essentially useless solar and wind power companies, the latest of which, Solyandra, will cost taxpayers millions when the solar panel producer went belly-up. Others will follow.

Meanwhile, the President crisscrosses the nations demanding higher taxes on companies engaged in coal, oil and natural gas. When Jimmy Carter imposed a windfall tax on oil companies many ceased to explore for new sources here, moving their efforts to other nations. Today, by withholding the necessary permits to produce energy in Alaska, the Trans Alaska Pipeline System is operating at one third of its capacity.

A proposed pipeline from Canada still awaits approval and, on November 6th, led by the Sierra Club, the largest protest against its tar sands is expected to draw thousands to Washington, D.C. to join hands and circle the White House to ensure the Keystone XL pipeline is kept from providing the U.S. with the oil extracted. The proposed pipeline would reduce the U.S. dependence on Middle East oil. The U.S. already has more than 50,000 safely operating oil pipelines to support our transportation and other needs.

In January 2010, Thomas J. Pyle, president of the Institute for Energy Research, warned that the Obama administration “continues to embrace Washington-dominated, command-and-control energy policies focused on mandates, subsidies, and political favors—not market forces.” He criticized “subsidizing one form of energy,” wind and solar, “while restricting the exploration of another,” warning that it “will lead to several measurable outcomes, increasing energy prices across the board, fewer jobs, and a weaker footing in the global economy..”

Nearly two years later, that warning has come true with a vengeance.

Oil, coal, or natural gas, it doesn’t matter to an administration and a president determined to restrict the amount of energy Americans need for their present and future needs. The result, in part, has been a stalled energy sector and a contributing factor in an economy with an estimated 20 million unemployed or under-employed.

The losses in income taxes and the taxes paid by this industry sector, in addition to the hideous borrowing and spending by the Obama administration is doing enormous harm to America and yet Barack Obama wants a second term in office.

Little wonder that Americans fear for the future of the nation.

© Alan Caruba, 2011

About:
Alan Caruba’s commentaries are posted daily at “Warning Signs” his popular blog and thereafter on dozens of other websites and blogs. If you love to read, visit his monthly report on new books at Bookviews.

AmmoLand Gun News

Washington, DC –-(Ammoland.com)- Hydraulic fracturing sends “huge volumes of toxic fluids” deep underground at high pressure, to fracture shale rock and release natural gas, Food & Water Watch claims.

“Billions of gallons of toxic fluids” will “contaminate” groundwater and drinking water “for generations.” We need to “Ban Fracking Now.”

Environmentalists used to support “clean natural gas.” Whence the intolerant new attitude?

Oil companies have been using hydraulic fracturing for 60 years to get the most petroleum possible from grudging rock formations deep beneath the Earth. A few years ago, Mitchell Energy and others combined HF with horizontal drilling to tap into hydrocarbon-rich shale deposits that previously refused to surrender their energy riches. Countless fracking operations later, the results have been spectacular.

Tapping the Marcellus, Bakken, Barnett, Haynesville and other formations has created jobs, generated revenues and rejuvenated moribund industries in many states that have shale deposits or manufacture the fluids, pipes and other equipment used in these operations. US natural gas production and estimated reserves have soared, and wellhead prices have dropped from $11 per thousand cubic feet in 2008 to $4 today. Canada is actively drilling, while Poland and Britain are evaluating early exploration results.

The Fort Worth Chamber says fracking supports 110,000 direct and secondary jobs in the region and added billions in property and sales tax revenues. Loren C. Scott & Associates calculates that shale drilling has added $11 billion to Louisiana’s economy. Pennsylvania’s Labor and Industry Department reports that HF has already generated 72,000 jobs and $1.4 billion in state tax revenues, and could bring another $20 billion by 2020. West Virginia and North Dakota report similar success.

Soaring supplies and plummeting prices have persuaded Dow, Shell, Sasol, Ormet and other companies to open, reopen or expand plants to produce ethylene, petrochemicals, aluminum – and more jobs.

That’s excellent energy and economic news, at a time when we sure could use a little good news.

Certainly, with all this activity going on – much of it in states that haven’t seen much drilling in decades, if ever – there is a clear need for regulations and oversight. We need to ensure that drilling and fracking are done properly, and chemicals are handled, disposed of and recycled correctly, to prevent harm to human health, wildlife habitats and environmental quality. While most shale gas deposits are thousands of feet below groundwater aquifers and drinking water supplies, we need to ensure that well casings are properly installed and cemented, so that there is no danger of contamination.

But ban hydraulic fracturing – and abandon these revenues and jobs? What the frack is going on here?
Think about it. This is free enterprise in action. It pays its own way. It doesn’t need subsidies, mandates, tariffs, or bureaucrats and politicians deciding which companies and industries win or lose. HF generates real, sustainable jobs, plus significant tax and royalty revenue, right here in America. It provides energy that works 24/7/365 … and is far cheaper than land-hungry wind turbine and solar panel installations. In fact, the shale gas revolution is making it even harder to justify these “renewable energy alternatives.”

Natural gas, specifically shale gas, is essential for powering backup generators for unreliable wind and solar installations. However, low gas prices make wind and solar even less competitive. The better solution is just to go with gas, coal and nuclear for electricity generation, and forget about expensive, eco-unfriendly, subsidy-dependent, crony capitalist wind and solar.

HF also demolishes the “peak oil and gas” mantra that we are rapidly running out of hydrocarbon energy. It again demonstrates that geologist Wallace Pratt was right. “Oil is first found in the minds of men.” Once companies devised new ways to extract shale gas bounties, vast new reserves became available.

Today, in reality, the only reason we might run out of energy is that government won’t let us drill.

People want and need reliable, affordable power. Many environmentalists support Paul Ehrlich’s opposite sentiment, that “giving society cheap energy is like giving an idiot child a machine gun.”

No wonder unrepentant fossil fuel haters are going ballistic over fracking.

The rest of us just want honest answers, carefully conducted drilling, fracking and production operations – and the benefits that come with them. Thankfully, the facts are relatively easy to find.

The Wall Street Journal laid many out clearly and forcefully in a June 2011 editorial, “The facts about fracking: The real risks of the shale gas revolution and how to manage them.” Whether it’s cancer, drinking water contamination, toxic or radioactive chemicals, earthquakes or regulations – the truth is miles from the misrepresentations, hysteria and fear-mongering propagated by Food & Water Watch and similar groups.

People who want to know how hydraulic fracturing is actually done – and what chemicals are actually used, even in specific states – can find a wealth of information at well-designed industry websites provided by Chesapeake Energy, the Ground Water Protection Council and Halliburton.

As the Halliburton site notes, 99.5% of fracking fluids is water and sand (the sand is carried into fractures, to keep them open and release the gas). However, forcing that fluid mix down wellbores and into solid rock formations thousands of feet underground requires advanced engineering and special chemicals to:

• Keep the sand suspended in the liquid, so that it is carried deep into the fractures;
• Fight the growth of bacteria in the fluid and wellbore, so that gas flows and pipes don’t corrode; and
• Reduce the surface tension of water that comes in contact with the reservoir, to improve gas production.

Different subsurface rock formations and conditions require different formulations for the 0.5% of the HF fluids that involves special chemicals. In the past, diesel oil and various industrial chemicals were used. Today, to an ever-increasing degree, the chemicals are borrowed from the food and cosmetics industry. The technical names sound daunting or even scary (inorganic acids, polysaccharide polymers and sulfonated alcohol, for instance), but these CleanStream chemicals (Halliburton’s terminology) are found in cheese and beer, canned fish and dairy desserts, and marshmallows and shampoo, respectively.

Even these three chemical groups (and other food and cosmetic chemicals) are classified as “hazardous” by the EPA and FDA, because in high doses some can cause cancer and other problems in animals. So you could say Food & Water Watch is technically correct when it tries to scare people by saying fracking fluids contain “toxic chemicals.” But the same point would apply to alcoholic beverages, fruit juices, lip liners, food starch, hand soap and countless other everyday products. Should we ban them too, along with coffee, broccoli and other foods that naturally contain even more potent carcinogens?

In other advanced techniques, instead of chemical biocides to kill bacteria, some systems now employ ultraviolet light, and mobile units now allow crews to treat and reuse water, reducing the amount of freshwater required in fracking. Other improvements are being made on a regular basis, as explained in simple lay terms on websites like those mentioned above. You can even find psychedelic 3-D maps of hydraulic fracturing operations and explanations of other fascinating technologies.

New York and other states, the Delaware River Basin Commission, Canadian provinces, Britain, Poland, the European Commission, and many Asian and Latin American countries are pondering HF as part of the solution to their energy, unemployment, economic and revenue problems. Getting the facts is essential.

Shale gas is an energy policy game changer. The last thing we need is more laws, regulations and policies based on misrepresentations and fabrications from outfits like Food & Water Watch.

About:
AmmoLand contributor, Paul Driessen, is senior policy adviser for the Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow and Congress of Racial Equality and author of Eco-Imperialism: Green power – Black death.

Our Least Sustainable Energy Option - Wind Power

AmmoLand Gun News

Washington, DC --(Ammoland.com)- President Obama and a chorus of environmentalists, politicians, corporate executives and bureaucrats are perennially bullish on wind power as the bellwether of our “clean energy economy of the future.”

In reality, wind energy may well be the least sustainable and least eco-friendly of all electricity options. Its shortcomings are legion, but the biggest ones can be grouped into eight categories.

Land. As American humorist and philosopher Will Rogers observed, “They ain’t making any more of it.” Wind turbine installations impact vast amounts of land, far more than traditional power plants.

Arizona’s Palo Verde nuclear plant generates 3,750 megwatts of electricity from a 4,000-acre site. The 600-MW John Turk ultra-supercritical coal-fired power plant in Arkansas covers part of 2,900 acres; two 600-MW coal-fired units in India use just 600 acres. Gas-fired units like Calpine’s 560-MW Fox Energy Center in Wisconsin require several hundred acres. All generate reliable power 90-95% of the year.

By contrast, the 600-MW Fowler Ridge wind installation (355 turbines) spans 50,000 acres of farm country along Indiana’s I-65 corridor. The 782-MW Roscoe project in Texas (627 turbines) sprawls across 100,000 acres. Oregon’s Shepherds Flat project (338 gigantic 2.5 MW turbines) covers nearly 80,000 wildlife and scenic acres along the Columbia River Gorge, for a “rated capacity” of 845 MW.

The Chokecherry-Sierra Madre project will blanket some 320,000 acres of sage grouse habitat and BLM land in Wyoming with 1,000 monstrous 3-MW turbines, to generate zero to 3,000 MW of intermittent power. That’s eight times the size of Washington, DC, to get an average annual output one-fourth of what Palo Verde generates 90% of the time. But C-SM has already received preliminary approval from BLM.

To replace just 20% of the United States’ 995,000 MW of total installed generating capacity, we would need to blanket an area the size of Kansas with wind turbines, and then add nearly a thousand 600-MW gas-fired backup generators … and thousands of miles of new high voltage transmission lines.

Raw materials. Wind turbine installations require vast amounts of steel, copper, rare earth metals, fiberglass, concrete, rebar and other materials for the turbines, towers and bases.

A single 1.7 MW wind turbine, like 315 of the Fowler Ridge units, involves some 365 tons of materials for the turbine assembly and tower, plus nearly 1100 tons of concrete and rebar for the foundation. Bigger units require substantially more materials. Grand total for the entire Fowler wind installation: some 515,000 tons; for Roscoe, 752,000 tons; for Shepherds Flat, 575,000 tons; for Chokecherry, perhaps 2,000,000 tons. Offshore installations need far more raw materials.

To all that must be added millions of tons of steel, copper, concrete and rebar for thousands of miles of transmission lines – and still more for mostly gas-fired generators to back up every megawatt of wind power and generate electricity the 17 hours of each average day that the wind doesn’t blow.

Money. Taxpayers and consumers must provide perpetual subsidies to prop up wind projects, which cannot survive without steady infusions of cash via feed-in tariffs, tax breaks and direct payments.

Transmission lines cost $1.0 million to $2.5 million per mile. Landowners get $5,000+ per turbine, plus royalties on all energy produced from the turbine, plus payments for every foot of access road and transmission lines. However, taxpayers pay more, while the landowners’ neighbors suffer property devaluation, scenic disruption, noise, health problems and interference with crop spraying, but no monetary compensation. Direct federal wind energy subsidies to help cover this totaled $5 billion in FY 2010; state support added billions more; still more billions were added to consumers’ electric bills.

The Other People’s Money well is running dry. The “manmade catastrophic climate change” thesis behind the wind energy campaign is in shambles. Voters and consumers are understandably fed up.

Energy. Mining, quarrying, drilling, milling, refining, smelting and manufacturing operations make the production of metals, concrete, fiberglass and resins, turbines, and heavy equipment to do all of the above very energy-intensive. Ditto for transporting and installing turbines, towers, backups and transmission lines. That takes real energy: abundant, reliable, affordable – not what comes from wind turbines.

In fact, it probably requires more energy to manufacture, haul and install these monstrous Cuisinarts of the air and their transmission systems than they will generate in their lifetimes. However, no cradle-to-grave analysis has ever been conducted, for the energy inputs or pollution outputs. We need one now.

Health. Whereas environmentalists garner scary headlines over wildly speculative claims about health dangers from hydraulic fracturing (to extract abundant natural gas for wind turbine backup generators), they ignore and dismiss a growing body of evidence that wind turbines cause significant health problems.

Principal health issues are associated with noise – not just annoying audible noise, but inaudible, low-frequency “infrasound” that causes headache, dizziness, “deep nervous fatigue” and symptoms akin to seasickness. “Wind turbine syndrome” also includes irritability, depression, and concentration and sleep problems. Others include “shadow flicker” or “strobe effect” from whirling blades, which can trigger seizures in epileptics, “vibroacoustic” effects on the heart and lungs, and non-lethal harm to animals. Serious lung, heart, cancer and other problems have been documented from rare earth mining, smelting and manufacturing in China, under its less rigorous health, workplace and environmental regulations.

To date, however, very few health assessments have been required or conducted prior to permit approval, even for major wind turbine installations. Perhaps the trial lawyers’ guild could redress that oversight.

Environment. Raptors, bats and other beautiful flying creatures continue to be sliced and diced by wind turbines. Thankfully, the Bureau of Land Management has included an “avian radar system” to track the slaughter within its 500-square-mile Chokecherry region – and banned mining among the turbines.

Wind turbines are supposed to reduce pollution and carbon dioxide emissions. But because backup generators must repeatedly surge to full power and back to standby, as wind speed rises and falls, they operate inefficiently, use more fuel and emit more – much like cars forced to stop repeatedly on freeways.

Jobs. The myth of “green jobs” is hitting the brick wall of reality. While the turbines are installed in the USA and EU, far more numerous mining and manufacturing jobs are in China, where they are hardly “green.” As Spanish and Scottish analysts have documented, the “green” installer and maintenance jobs cost up to $750,000 apiece – and kill 2.2 to 3.7 traditional jobs for every “eco-friendly” job created.

Electricity costs and reliability. Even huge subsidies cannot cure wind power’s biggest defects: its electricity costs far more than coal, gas or nuclear alternatives – and its intermittent nature wreaks havoc on power grids and consumers. The problem is worst on hot summer afternoons, when demand is highest and breezes are minimal. Unable to compete against cheap Chinese and Indian electricity and labor, energy-intensive industries increasingly face the prospect of sending operations and jobs overseas. Bayer Chemical’s warning that it may have to close its German facilities is just the tip of the iceberg.

When it comes to wind, Nat King Cole might have sung: “Unsustainable that’s what you are, unsustainable though near or far. Unsustainable in every way, and forever more that’s how you’ll stay.” Maybe not forever, but certainly for the foreseeable future, especially compared to increasingly abundant natural gas.

Paul Driessen

So take a hint from Spoon’s lively tune and “cut out the middleman.”Forge a direct relationship with energy you can afford, energy that works nearly 24/7/365, energy that causes the least ecological damage and is far more sustainable than wind power: the hydrocarbon, hydroelectric and nuclear power that have sustained our society and brought unprecedented health, prosperity and living standards to billions.

Then help the planet’s least fortunate people to do likewise.

About:
AmmoLand contributor, Paul Driessen, is senior policy adviser for the Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow and Congress of Racial Equality and author of Eco-Imperialism: Green power – Black death.

AmmoLand Gun News

Washington, DC --(Ammoland.com)- Every American manufacturing company gets tax deductions that help it create jobs and strengthen our economy – whether it produces newspapers, furniture, cars or fuel.

Eliminating those deductions would increase unemployment and further slow our nation’s desperately needed economic recovery.

Yet that is precisely what President Obama wants to do when oil companies want to use the deductions. It is one of many ways the Obama administration is undermining the oil industry and 9.2 million Americans whose jobs it supports. It is part of the administration’s strategy for replacing fossil fuels with heavily subsidized “alternatives” that taxpayers cannot afford, and consumers will not purchase on their own.

Newspapers that benefit from the same genre of tax deductions as oil companies nevertheless sometimes join attacking the oil industry, and the jobs and benefits it creates. This is rank hypocrisy.

“If Republicans are truly determined to slash the budget and end government waste,” the New York Times editorialized, “they will start [by] ending the web of tax breaks enjoyed by the rolling-in-dough oil industry and terminating the ethanol subsidy. Together these cuts would save up to $100 billion over 10 years.”

Spreading 'Big Oil Subsidy' Disinformation

The Times is right about ending ethanol subsidies. But it and other “progressives” are wrong on every other argument they present to justify their job-killing, economy-crippling energy agenda.

1) Oil industry tax deductions cover costs incurred in exploration, drilling, production, transportation and refining. They aren’t subsidies or special tax breaks. They are essentially the same deductions claimed by all manufacturers, in conducting their business under our complex tax code. They ensure that businesses recover their costs and get taxed only on net income, in the process of making essential products.

Refineries and petrochemical manufacturers play an especially vital role in the oil industry – transforming crude oil and natural gas into fuels and raw materials used to make fabrics, plastics, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, fertilizers, carpets, paints, roofing, siding, and myriad other products that improve and safeguard our lives. Solar panels and resins for fiberglass wind turbine blades are also petroleum-based.

The NY Times itself enjoys similar tax breaks, and hasn’t offered to give one of them up, to help end government waste. Nor have other newspapers, some of which have even sought to benefit under the “failing newspaper act,” which would let them operate as “educational nonprofits,” and pay no taxes. Others have sought exemptions from antitrust laws, so that they can set online subscription prices.

In truth, in this internet and online media age, we could live without newspapers. But as an American Express advertising executive might say, Oil: You can’t leave home without it. Nor can you have modern civilization or improved health and living standards without it.

2) Most petroleum companies aren’t “Big Oil.” They’re small independents. And the entire industry operates under government policies and regulations that keep many of America’s best oil and gas prospects off limits and make leasing, exploration and drilling needlessly expensive and time-consuming. Between 1981 and 2008, the largest consolidated oil companies (“Big Oil”) alone paid $1.95 trillion in severance, property, excise, sales and corporate income taxes, the Tax Foundation reports.

Eliminate the tax deductions amid the current regulatory and political climate, and fewer wells will be drilled, fewer deposits will be profitable enough to develop, fields will be abandoned prematurely, royalty revenues will decline, refineries will close or move overseas, workers will lose their jobs, their income tax payments will morph into welfare checks, and we will import still more oil and refined products.

3) A primary reason oil and gasoline prices are so high, unemployment is stuck at 9% and our economic growth is anemic is that government has made most of our western states, Alaskan and Outer Continental Shelf energy prospects off limits. It raises unfounded concerns about hydraulic fracturing, and drags its feet on permits for lands that supposedly are “available” for leasing and drilling.

In short, it chokes off supplies.

Meanwhile, politicians stoke demand – with legislation like the NAT GAS Act. That bill would obligate US taxpayers to pony up some $14 billion annually in subsidies (aka, tax credits and rebates), to encourage motorists to buy natural gas-fueled cars and trucks, and service stations to install natural gas fueling stations.

Eliminate oil company tax deductions: “save” $4 billion. Subsidize car and truck purchases: spend $14 billion. It’s unsustainable. It’s insane.

4) Real subsidies take money taken from society’s productive sectors, and transfer it to legislators and bureaucrats, who give it to companies that “deserve” funding, because they provide politically favored products or could not remain in business without perpetual infusions of Other People’s Money. You support our reelection, our “catastrophic manmade global warming” thesis and our commitment to a renewable energy future, and you’ll continue receiving taxpayer cash – until the OPM runs out.

Evergreen Solar received $486 million in federal and state subsidies – but still closed its doors and fired 850 workers, when the subsidy well ran dry. The same thing happened to five of six solar companies in Germany. The jobs went to China and Malaysia, which have lower costs and fewer regulations.

5) Even with subsidies, wind and solar still can’t compete, unless they are also exempted from endangered species and other environmental laws. If you shoot an eagle, or birds die in an uncovered oil company waste pit, fines and possibly prison terms are meted out. But wind farms slaughter bald and golden eagles, falcons, hawks, curlews, bats and other threatened, endangered and just plain majestic sky dwellers with no consequences.

They even get fast-tracked through the environmental review process by the same Interior Department and EPA that routinely delay or deny oil and gas applications.

6) Then there’s ethanol. Producing 13.2 billion gallons of it in 2010 required one-quarter of all the corn grown in the United States – monopolizing 23 million acres (Grade A cropland the size of Indiana) and consuming 1.2 trillion gallons of water, along with prodigious amounts of petroleum in the form of fertilizer and tractor, truck and distillery fuel … for $6 billion a year in subsidies. While corn growers get rich, higher corn prices mean pork and chicken producers pay more for feed, meat producers are driven out of business, manufacturers pay more for corn syrup, consumers pay more for food, and jobs disappear.

America could produce far more gasoline from a mere 2,000 acres in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (1/20 of Washington, DC), if anti-oil zealots would end their opposition to drilling in the frozen tundra.

And still ethanol enjoys fuel pump mandates, $6 billion in annual subsidies, and tariffs against foreign competition – so that consumers can “choose” a fuel that gets a third fewer miles per gallon than gasoline.

Meanwhile, the Defense Department is doing a theirs-not-to-reason-why Light Brigade charge into the jaws of biofuel R&D – and extolling the virtues of camellia-based jet fuel that costs $67 a gallon, versus $5 per gallon for aviation gas that could also come from ANWR, the OCS and other off-limits US lands.

The bottom line is simple.
The worst thing we can do is what President Obama is intent on doing: use the mythical revenues he expects from eliminating oil company “subsidies and tax breaks” to increase federal wind, solar and ethanol subsidies by another 50% (to $18 billion a year) – so as to “foster the clean energy economy of the future and reduce our reliance on fossil fuels that contribute to climate change.”

As should be abundantly clear by now, these energy sources are not so clean or eco-friendly. They can’t exist without perpetual subsidies. They are simply not sustainable.

To provide reliable, affordable, ecological, sustainable energy … put people back to work … rejuvenate our economy … and generate trillions in new government revenue – we need to do three things.

Open America’s public lands for responsible hydrocarbon development. Take the boot off the neck of American businesses.

Paul Driessen

And get rid of all the subsidies, bailouts, targeted tax breaks, selective tariffs, mandates to purchase ethanol and other products, and other corporate welfare gimmicks that make tax lawyers and lobbyists more important than researchers, trained workers and top-flight CEOs.

About:
AmmoLand contributor, Paul Driessen, is senior policy adviser for the Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow and Congress of Racial Equality and author of Eco-Imperialism: Green power – Black death.

Mule Deer Foundation

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah --(Ammoland.com)- Mule deer hunters from across the country should applaud the Western Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies’ (WAFWA) approval of new guidelines for balancing mule deer management with energy development, the Mule Deer Foundation announced today.

Released at the WAFWA annual meeting, which took place last month in Big Sky, Mont., “Energy Development Guidelines for Mule Deer” was prepared by the Mule Deer Working Group (MDWG), composed of biologists from state, federal and provincial agencies and created by WAFWA in 1997 to develop consistent, science-based information for management and research on mule deer.

The MDWG developed the guidelines based on the best available science and real world experience relating to energy development and mule deer, which have faced declines in recent years due to habitat loss and degradation, and displacement in part to certain energy development practices.

Western Association of Fish & Wildlife Agencies

The report was authored by state biologists and reviewed by the energy industry, federal agencies and several non-governmental organizations. The guidelines are intended to help resource managers conserve mule deer populations during energy development through activities such as pre-project risk assessments, appropriate project designs, effective mitigation and reclamation, and adequate monitoring. Adaptive management techniques are a common theme throughout the document.

“If followed, these new guidelines will play a key role in sustaining mule deer populations during energy development activities,” said Miles Moretti, President/CEO of the Mule Deer Foundation. “Bringing together all the stakeholders before an energy project is initiated will reduce conflicts later during the development phase. We thank the WAFWA states for their forward-looking leadership in developing this important management tool.”

Mule deer and black-tailed deer populations have experienced range-wide declines in recent years. Habitat loss and fragmentation, especially on deer winter ranges, is one of the major causes of declining populations.

“Energy Development Guidelines for Mule Deer” focuses not only on traditional oil and gas development but also on geothermal, wind and solar energy development. The publication will be available in published form in the near future.

For more information about mule deer, visit www.muledeer.org or www.muledeerworkinggroup.com.

About MDF:
The Mule Deer Foundation is one of the key conservation groups in North America working to restore, improve and protect mule deer, black-tailed deer and their habitat. With a focus on science and program efficiency, MDF has raised millions of dollars and put countless man-hours on the ground for mission-critical projects. MDF acknowledges regulated hunting as a viable management component and is committed to recruitment and retention of youth into the shooting sports and conservation. Visit www.muledeer.org or call 1-888-375-DEER.

Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership

WASHINGTON --(Ammoland.com)-  The Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership today released a comprehensive report analyzing the federal government’s policy approach to managing energy development while promoting and conserving mule deer populations in the American West.

“Mule Deer and Energy: Federal Policy and Planning in the Greater Green River Basin” examines collaborative efforts in mule deer management between federal land agencies and state wildlife agencies, offering insights into federal management of the species and its habitat during public-lands energy development. The report focuses on the greater Green River Basin, home to some of the most significant mule deer herds in North America as well as many of the nation’s largest energy reserves. It studies the conflicts resulting from the coexistence of these valuable resources and presents specific recommendations for resolving them.

“We need more and better coordination for meeting management objectives and better integration of known science in the management of these cornerstone mule deer populations,” said Steve Belinda, director of the TRCP Center for Responsible Energy Development. “This report offers an opportunity to look ahead and do better – both for mule deer herds in the Green River Basin and across the West.”

Icons of the western United States, mule deer are related to white-tailed deer but have different habitat requirements and respond differently to human-caused disturbance. While white-tailed deer are highly adaptable, mule deer rely on specific seasonal habitats that enable annual migrations between summer and winter range, the latter being a major limiting factor for the species and typically protected from disturbance. Most winter range is closed to vehicle traffic and human activity to safeguard mule deer populations, and energy leases located within winter range often have restrictions on development.

The greater Green River Basin of southwestern Wyoming, northwestern Colorado and northeastern Utah comprises 10.2 million acres of mule deer crucial winter range on Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Forest Service lands. Of this total, 2.4 million acres already have been leased for development. The TRCP report notes that, while seasonal restrictions intended to protect mule deer from additional stress are in place, industry often asks for and receives relief from them. In Wyoming, for example, 83 percent of requests for relief from wildlife protections were approved in an 18-month period in 2007-2008.

“More than 15,000 wells already have been drilled in mule deer crucial winter range,” said Belinda. “To date, most of this activity has taken place outside of the critical winter season. But how long these protective measures will continue to be applied is unknown. Industry has made no secret of its belief that these measures, which are intended to protect deer and other wildlife, are unnecessary and impediments to development.

“In the Pinedale Anticline in southwestern Wyoming,” continued Belinda, “mule deer have declined more than 60 percent in the last 10 years, and the BLM has increasingly authorized development on crucial winter ranges year-round. We can do better for mule deer during energy development, but we must better integrate the science, better plan for mitigation, and formulate an overall plan for managing mule deer habitat.

“Overall we found inconsistencies across all jurisdictions regarding how state mule deer plans are incorporated into federal plans and energy projects,” stated Belinda, a former BLM biologist. “We also found that energy development is the dominant priority for BLM policy and planning within the Green River Basin, that mule deer science often is ignored or misinterpreted, and that coordination between habitat managers and state deer managers is weak, if it occurs at all.”

“The need for greater coordination is the lesson learned from this report,” said Miles Moretti, president and CEO of the Mule Deer Foundation, which is a member of the TRCP Fish, Wildlife and Energy Working Group, “coordination not just between federal and state entities but among all stakeholders. We have the power to address deficiencies in management that have negatively affected this prized sportsmen’s resource – and to forge a brighter future for mule deer.”

• Read “Mule Deer and Energy: Federal Policy and Planning in the Greater Green River Basin.”
• Review a summary of the TRCP report and recommendations.

About:
Inspired by the legacy of Theodore Roosevelt, the TRCP is a coalition of organizations and grassroots partners working together to preserve the tradition of hunting and fishing. Visit: www.trcp.org

Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership

WASHINGTON --(Ammoland.com)- The Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership is appealing a court decision in its suit against the Department of the Interior over the government’s mishandling of a southwestern Wyoming energy development and the resulting impacts to wildlife, the sportsmen’s group announced today.

The TRCP suit, filed in 2008 in U.S. District Court, contends that the BLM failed to implement “adaptive environmental management” and mitigation activities as committed to in decision documents for the Pinedale Anticline natural gas project, which encompasses approximately 200,000 acres of the Upper Green River Basin in Sublette County, Wyo.

Sometimes referred to as an “American Serengeti” because of its seasonal and migratory use by wildlife, the Upper Green River Basin comprises crucial winter range for one of the state’s largest mule deer populations and has been identified by wildlife experts as one of the last, best habitats for sage grouse. A recently released federal report documents declines of 60 percent in mule deer numbers in the project area in the decade since development began, which will have serious repercussions for northern Wyoming Range mule deer hunting.

The TRCP maintains that BLM decisions regarding development in the Pinedale Anticline consistently ignore current science about the impacts of natural gas projects on these and a host of other species and lead to unnecessary impacts to wildlife. Dr. Rollin Sparrowe, TRCP board member and past leader of the Pinedale Anticline Working Group Wildlife Task Group, cited the report as a “prime example” of the federal government’s misguided approach to resource management and evidence of its failure to sustain mule deer numbers in the region.

“Current science, along with lessons learned from past actions, enable us to practice a balanced approach toward management of two world-class resources – wildlife and natural gas – located on the Pinedale Anticline,” said Sparrowe, a former U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist and lifelong hunter who lives near the project site. “Yet the government’s failure to implement practices that conserve seasonal habitat for mule deer are furthering this population’s decline.

“Our appeal is rooted in our interest in assuring the responsible development of these energy resources,” continued Sparrowe, “and in our desire to see the BLM address mitigation, monitoring and adaptive management in a way that is both meaningful and effective for species prized by American sportsmen.”

“Why should we care about Pinedale, Wyoming?” said TRCP President and CEO Whit Fosburgh. “In short, because this project, touted as a paragon of public lands energy development, instead exemplifies a broken, out-of-balance management system.

“The court’s ruling essentially states that BLM can concoct a management plan, fail to implement that plan, rewrite the plan, and have the plan affirmed by a federal court, despite its failure to live up to the BLM’s contract with the American people,” Fosburgh said.

“The needs of fish and wildlife – and the interests of sportsmen and other public lands users – remain at the mercy of the BLM and its subjective interpretation of its mission,” Fosburgh concluded. “The nation’s public lands should be held and managed in trust for all Americans and for future generations to use and enjoy; the BLM’s failure to do this in Pinedale is setting a dangerous precedent for management of our shared natural resources.”

The TRCP supports responsible public-lands energy development that is pursued in accordance with federal law and ensures citizens’ continued ability to access our shared lands and natural resources.

• Learn more about the TRCP’s energy work.
• Learn more about the Pinedale Anticline.

About:
Inspired by the legacy of Theodore Roosevelt, the TRCP is a coalition of organizations and grassroots partners working together to preserve the tradition of hunting and fishing. Visit: www.trcp.org

A hunter with his mule deer, taken from public lands in Montana. Changes to federal leasing practices on these lands would benefit fish, wildlife and our sporting traditions. Photo courtesy David Thorstenson.

Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership

Washington, DC --(AmmoLand.com)- In recent years, sportsmen across America have spoken loudly in urging the Bureau of Land Management to pursue energy development on our federal public lands that is balanced with the needs of fish, wildlife and our outdoor traditions.

Unique hunting and angling destinations such as Utah’s Book Cliffs and Wyoming’s Atlantic Rim demand a new and smarter development approach that will safeguard these areas invaluable sporting opportunities.

Now your hard work is paying off. Sportsmen’s voices are being heard in Washington. The Secretary of the Interior recently has announced changes to the way energy resources will be developed on public lands – changes that could better sustain other land uses such as hunting and fishing.

But hunters and anglers must speak up once again to ensure that these changes benefit America’s sporting community and our outdoor heritage.

Take a moment right now to contact Interior Secretary Ken Salazar – urge him to develop a smarter leasing and development process that guarantees the future of hunting and fishing.

About:
Inspired by the legacy of Theodore Roosevelt, the TRCP is a coalition of organizations and grassroots partners working together to preserve the traditions of hunting and fishing. Visit: www.trcp.org

Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership

WASHINGTON –-(AmmoLand.com)- The Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership today took an aggressive step forward in holding the federal government accountable for management commitments it made on a southwestern Wyoming energy project by filing a legal brief in a suit against the Department of the Interior. The sportsmen’s group asserts that the Bureau of Land Management has mishandled adaptive management on the Pinedale Anticline natural gas development project. The TRCP initially filed its lawsuit because the BLM formally adopted and then abandoned adaptive management plans intended to protect a host of species.

At issue in the TRCP suit are commitments made by the BLM to sustain the region’s natural resources through an “adaptive environmental management” process in its authorization in 2000 and a supplemental authorization in 2008 for the Pinedale Anticline project area, which encompasses approximately 200,000 acres of the Green River Basin in Sublette County, Wyo. The project authorized development in a region that supports substantial numbers of sage-grouse and contains crucial winter range for one of the state’s largest mule deer populations. The latter has declined by 30 percent in the project area since development began. These species and other game in the region offer some of Wyoming’s best hunting and fishing opportunities; hunting seasons and recreational use have been reduced due to the impacts from development.

“This lawsuit upholds the interests of sportsmen in Wyoming and across the country,” said Dr. Rollin Sparrowe, a former federal biologist and lifelong hunter who lives near the project site. “Development in the Pinedale Anticline has proceeded without checks that the adaptive management process was intended to provide. Big-game and upland bird populations are suffering, and hunting opportunities are declining. The TRCP supports responsible public-lands energy development that is pursued in accordance with federal law and ensures citizens’ continued ability to access our shared lands and natural resources. Our inaction in Pinedale would allow the ongoing mismanagement of Western lands and the elimination of America’s dearly held outdoor traditions.

“From the project’s beginnings in 2000, the BLM committed itself and industry to processes that it concluded were essential to safeguarding fish and wildlife during development of the Pinedale Anticline,” continued Sparrowe, a TRCP board member and past leader of the Pinedale Anticline Working Group Wildlife Task Group. “The BLM subsequently failed to uphold those commitments and contracts with the American public. But instead of acknowledging the fact, the agency redesigned the project in 2008 and authorized expanded development, forging ahead as though initial commitments never were made and lessening the role of the public in the development of these public lands. This is unacceptable and goes against federal law. The government must be held accountable for promises it makes to the American people.”

The BLM’s failure to implement the adaptive environmental management process began in 2000. The current administration, however, has not yet corrected fundamental problems identified by the TRCP in its suit, which contends that the BLM disregard of this process violates the National Environmental Policy Act and the Federal Land Policy and Management Act, laws intended to assure responsible management of federal public lands. The suit also states that BLM decisions regarding development in the Pinedale Anticline consistently ignored current science regarding the impacts of energy development on populations of mule deer and sage-grouse.

“Under the 2000 project plan, a body of science was collected for the benefit of wildlife populations but never was employed – neither at that time nor in the 2008 plan,” said TRCP Senior Vice President Tom Franklin. “This decision by the federal government perpetrated a whole host of failed policies to the detriment of wildlife, with the few policies that might have been effective if implemented being dismissed.

“In essence, the BLM ignored peer-reviewed, current science, and its decisions resulted in huge profits for industry – at the public’s expense,” Franklin continued. “Our shared fish and wildlife resources were sold, at great cost to American citizens and our collective outdoor heritage.”

The TRCP initiated its case against the Department of the Interior in U.S. District Court in June 2008, supplementing its complaint in Oct. 2008 to reflect additional claims arising from a new record of decision issued in Sept. 2008. Under the 2008 plan, the modest protections afforded wildlife are undercut by permanent, widespread exceptions to seasonal development restrictions. As demonstrated in the established case record, the limited mitigation measures offered by energy companies cannot effectively alleviate the environmental damage resulting from the increased development.

Oral arguments in the case are expected to commence in spring 2010. The TRCP also is actively pursuing conversations with the Department of the Interior about resolving the case.

The TRCP and its partners believe that to better balance the concerns of fish and wildlife in the face of accelerating energy development, federal land management agencies must follow the conservation tenets outlined in the FACTS for Fish and Wildlife and the CAST principles.

About:
Inspired by the legacy of Theodore Roosevelt, the TRCP is a coalition of organizations and grassroots partners working together to preserve the traditions
of hunting and fishing.

Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership

WASHINGTON – -(AmmoLand.com)- Citing a need for more comprehensive upfront planning in crucial wildlife habitat, the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership today filed an official protest of 26,000 acres of oil and gas leases proposed for federal public lands in Utah. Valuable habitat for mule deer, elk, pronghorn, sage grouse and Gunnison sage grouse is of concern to the sportsmen’s group and spurred its action in the Bureau of Land Management’s Aug. 18 mineral lease sale. Administrative protests are the public’s only means for participating in the leasing of public minerals to private entities.

“Sportsmen support responsibly planned energy development that sustain a range of public-lands uses,” said Joel Webster, associate director of campaigns for the TRCP Center for Western Lands. “Our worry with these Utah leases, however, is that advance planning and adequate stipulations for wildlife and recreational resources have not been established prior to the lands being opened to development. History indicates that after public lands are leased, very little can be done to address the course of subsequent development on other values and uses like wildlife habitats and hunting.”

The TRCP protest includes approximately 9,000 acres of viable pronghorn habitat in Utah’s West Desert region, which is overseen by the BLM’s Fillmore Field Office. Since 2007, the TRCP has been vocal in requesting that the BLM undertake the necessary upfront planning to ensure the area’s responsible energy development and sustain activities such as hunting and fishing. Other leases objected to by the sportsmen are located on mule deer and elk crucial winter range in Utah’s famous Book Cliffs and in Gunnison sage grouse habitat southeast of Moab.

“We find it disheartening to be continually addressing the same issues with the BLM over and over again,” continued Webster. “Models for development exist that would enable the leasing and extraction of these energy reserves in a way that conserves traditional public uses of these lands and the valuable habitat for the critters that inhabit them. The approach currently being taken by the Utah BLM works for neither fish and wildlife nor for balanced public land management. Sportsmen will persevere in attempting to assure the responsible management of these shared resources.”

“The BLM has admitted that it sometimes has neglected to pursue adequate advance planning for fish and wildlife in its drive to open public lands to the energy industry,” said Steve Belinda, associate director of policy and science for the TRCP Center for Western Lands, “and in fact the agency is subjecting other areas in Utah to increased scrutiny – including on-the-ground inspections of proposed lease parcels – in an effort to accurately evaluate their suitability for development. While this represents a step forward, we’d like to see similar attention and level of review instituted as standard operating procedure to avoid conflicts and result in fewer protests.”

The TRCP is actively engaged in promoting a new model for energy development on public lands and waters that safeguards fish and wildlife populations and hunting and fishing traditions. The TRCP and its partners believe that to better balance the concerns of fish and wildlife in the face of accelerating energy development, federal land management agencies must follow the conservation tenets outlined in the FACTS for Fish and Wildlife and the CAST principles.

About:
Inspired by the legacy of Theodore Roosevelt, the TRCP is a coalition of organizations and grassroots partners working together to preserve the traditions
of hunting and fishing.

Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership

WASHINGTON, DC – -(AmmoLand.com)- At a hearing of its Energy and Natural Resources Committee, the U.S. Senate today took one more step toward instituting reform of the 1872 General Mining Law, a move that sportsmen heralded as critical toward conserving America’s public lands and the habitat and outdoor opportunities these lands provide.

Sportsmen United for Sensible Mining, a coalition of organizations and grassroots partners led by the National Wildlife Federation, the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership and Trout Unlimited, has advocated reform of the 1872 Mining Law as a means to better manage public-lands fish and wildlife resources and promote reclamation of thousands of abandoned mines located throughout the American West. In April, Senate Energy and Natural Resources Chair Jeff Bingaman introduced the Hardrock Mining and Reclamation Act of 2009 (S. 796), which took unprecedented action toward revision of the 137-year-old law.

“Sportsmen, and every citizen who cares about and enjoys our nation’s public lands, have reason to applaud Senator Jeff Bingaman for introducing this historic reform measure and praise the Senate for considering the legislation,” said Chris Wood, chief operating officer of TU, “which takes strides toward instituting long-overdue revision of America’s most archaic natural resources law.”

“Today’s Senate hearing demonstrates the willingness and interest by our nation’s leaders to revise this outdated law and put an end to the destructive public-lands management practices it enables,” said Tom St. Hilaire, vice president for campaign management for the TRCP. “The fact that Interior Secretary Ken Salazar willingly offered testimony at this important event further drives home the administration’s support of mining law reform – and that such reform cannot wait another year.”

The Senate’s consideration of mining law reform follows efforts initiated in the U.S. House of Representatives earlier this year. The House bill, H.R. 699, is identical to a bill passed by the House last year in a 244-166 bipartisan vote.

“As Congress continues to move toward revision of the 1872 Mining Law, American sportsmen emphasize the critical elements of common-sense reform,” said NWF Senior Vice President Jim Lyon, “including strong conservation measures, reasonable royalties on minerals extracted from public lands, an abandoned mine cleanup fund that considers impacts to fish and wildlife, discretion for land managers and prohibition of public-lands patenting.”

“We thank Secretary Salazar for his testimony in regards to abandon mine clean-up,” said Land Tawney, NWF senior manager for sportsmen leadership. “With more than 40 percent of Western watersheds contaminated with mining waste, our world-class fisheries are at risk. We have a duty to future generations to clean up these abandoned mines and restore fish and wildlife habitat, thus perpetuating our hunting and fishing heritage.”

Subsequent action on S. 796 is expected after the Senate Energy Committee completes its work on the energy bill later this summer.

Under the 1872 General Mining Law, more than 270 million acres of federal land are open to hard-rock mining, mostly in the Rocky Mountain West. Absent meaningful revision of the law, many of America’s most treasured public lands remain at risk, including important wildlife habitat and hunting areas, valuable fisheries, popular recreation sites, vital municipal water supplies and sensitive roadless areas.

Learn more about Sportsmen United for Sensible Mining

Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership

WASHINGTON –-(AmmoLand.com)- The Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership today welcomed an announcement by the Utah Bureau of Land Management that valuable public-lands fish and wildlife habitat would receive additional review before being leased for oil and gas development.

The BLM initially offered more than 90,000 acres of public land on 67 parcels in its June 23 lease sale in Utah. The TRCP filed a protest of 31 parcels, comprising 46,000 acres of crucial mule deer, elk and sage grouse habitat where supplementary development conditions could lessen negative effects on wildlife populations. Administrative protests such as these are the public’s only recourse for commenting on the federal leasing process and raising concerns about impacts to resources like fish and wildlife.

“Sportsmen unreservedly support oil and gas production on America’s public lands,” said Joel Webster, TRCP associate director of campaigns, “but responsible administration of these resources demands a consistent approach to leasing and development activities in order to sustain fish and wildlife – and to provide companies wishing to extract energy from our lands and waters an increased level of certainty in their investments and planning.”

In 2007 and 2008, the TRCP protested approximately 2.5 million acres of energy leases in Colorado, Montana, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming after concluding that fish and wildlife resources or hunting and fishing could be significantly affected if the areas were developed as proposed. The TRCP reviewed each proposed lease for management actions or protections for fish and wildlife and protested only those leases that, based on this analysis, could not be managed to sustain these resources during development.

“Neither current science nor the BLM’s multiple-use mandate has been reliably adhered to during the most recent energy boom in the Rocky Mountain West,” concluded Webster. “Consequently, public-lands energy development often is troublingly one-sided, with industry demands superseding the needs of fish and wildlife and the interests of citizens. A new federal approach guiding the development of our shared resources is critical – and its implementation is long overdue.”

The TRCP and its partners believe that to better balance the concerns of fish and wildlife in the face of accelerating energy development, federal land management agencies must follow the conservation tenets outlined in the FACTS for Fish and Wildlife and the CAST principles.

About:
Inspired by the legacy of Theodore Roosevelt, the TRCP is a coalition of organizations and grassroots partners working together to preserve the traditions
of hunting and fishing.

Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership

WASHINGTON – -(AmmoLand.com)- At a Tuesday hearing of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership will issue recommendations for more balanced and consistent federal management of energy development on federal lands and waters. With heightened attention on renewable energy production and transmission, onshore and offshore, the TRCP and its partners stress that better upfront planning can ensure balanced management of a range of public resources and land and water uses. Both the Senate and the House are weighing the introduction of broad-based energy legislation packages this year.

TRCP President and CEO George Cooper will promote a three-pronged strategy at the hearing that emphasizes “precaution, planning and investment” to sustain fish and wildlife resources and sporting opportunities through the duration of leasing and development projects on public lands and the outer continental shelf. The sportsmen-conservation group maintains that any forthcoming energy legislation should include a fish and wildlife sustainability title.

“Precaution, planning and investment are the over-arching themes of our recommendations,” said Cooper, “and these three areas should be addressed in a new, unified policy applied consistently across onshore and offshore development, whether renewable or nonrenewable. Consistent adherence to these guidelines will assure a sustainable future for our valuable fish and wildlife populations, as well as the continued ability of American citizens to enjoy our nation’s treasured landscapes and seascapes.”

Specific tactics advocated by the TRCP include the preparation of conservation plans prior to leasing, consistent monitoring and enforcement during development, effective mitigation of the negative effects of development and restoration of habitat through the project’s duration. The sportsmen’s group also supports dedicating a percentage of royalties to state and federal entities so that they may efficiently pursue planning before development and multiple-use management of resources during development. The TRCP further stresses that certain special places of exceptional value to fish and wildlife should be subject to no or limited development activity.

“The TRCP and its partners fully appreciate the need to develop our nation’s domestic energy sources expeditiously, but the Department of the Interior needs to adopt a consistent approach to all leasing and development activities – renewable, nonrenewable, onshore, offshore, transmission and transport – that sustains fish and wildlife during development,” Cooper continued. “Companies seeking to develop energy on our public lands and waters stand to gain from our recommended strategy, as it would give them a much higher level of certainty in their planning and investments.”

Two TRCP working groups – the Fish, Wildlife and Energy Working Group and the Marine Conservation Working Group – inform the TRCP’s work on energy issues. Composed of representatives from many of the nation’s leading hunting, fishing and conservation organizations, the groups have compiled recommendations concerning federal management of energy development on public lands and waters known as the FACTS principles and the CAST principles.

“Many unknowns exist regarding the far-reaching impacts of energy development on fish and wildlife, particularly in marine environments,” said Bob Hayes, with the Coastal Conservation Association and co-chair of the TRCP Marine Conservation Working Group. “American sportsmen urge the Senate to thoroughly address regulations covering oil and gas, both on public-lands development and offshore development, in any energy legislation. We can and must ensure the speedy and efficient cultivation of energy resources while simultaneously assuring that our fish and wildlife resources are adequately safeguarded.”

The TRCP has established a record of analyzing and objecting to poorly planned energy development on public lands, a tactic that has provoked decisive responses from the federal government. A new federal policy that consistently and adequately considers fish, wildlife and user-group impacts in advance of development would result in smoother leasing processes. As of now, stakeholders must resort primarily to legal and administrative maneuvering if they want to stave off unnecessarily harmful development. The TRCP, through participation in the Sportsmen for Responsible Energy Development coalition, has pushed recommendations aimed at improving federal energy-development protocol.

“Any new energy legislation must deal explicitly with the impacts of development on fish and wildlife,” said Dr. Rollin Sparrowe, acting TRCP board chairman and co-chair of the TRCP Fish, Wildlife and Energy Working Group. “The most recent energy boom in the Rocky Mountain West has been managed inconsistently by the federal government, with neither science nor the multiple-use mandate being adhered to uniformly.”

“Willingness by the federal government to engage in a consistent and balanced approach to such development will engender greater confidence by stakeholders and, consequently, reduce objections and legal actions to which these entities now are forced to resort,” continued Sparrowe. “We must learn from our mistakes and avoid repeating them as we proceed to develop our country’s energy resources – onshore and offshore, renewables and nonrenewables – for the good of our shared natural resources and our outdoor traditions.”

The TRCP and its partners believe that to better balance the concerns of fish and wildlife in the face of accelerating energy development, federal land management agencies must follow the conservation tenets outlined in the FACTS for Fish and Wildlife and the CAST principles.

Inspired by the legacy of Theodore Roosevelt, the TRCP is a coalition of organizations and grassroots partners working together to preserve the traditions of hunting and fishing.

Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership

WASHINGTON – -(AmmoLand.com)- While promoting responsibly planned energy projects that sustain a range of public-lands uses, the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership today formally protested leases on more than 86,000 acres of federal lands in Utah, where development as proposed could negatively affect vast expanses of important habitat for game species, as well as hunting and fishing opportunities. A laundry list of fish and wildlife species jeopardized in the March 24 lease sale includes mule deer, elk, pronghorn, waterfowl, sage grouse and Gunnison grouse.

The massive sale constitutes close to 160,000 acres of Utah public lands and encompasses 15,000 acres overseen by the Bureau of Land Management’s Fillmore Field Office, where the agency’s proposal to forgo detailed environmental analysis in opening the region to energy development has drawn criticism from a range of diverse interests. The TRCP recently led a consortium of sportsmen’s groups in objecting to BLM plans to permit leases on more than 4 million acres following only a bare-bones environment assessment that fails to adequately analyze the impacts of drilling on the area’s trout and big-game populations.

“Utah’s federal public lands and their abundant fish and wildlife and hunting and fishing opportunities draw sportsmen from across the country,” said Joel Webster, TRCP’s associate director of campaigns.

Certainly, oil and gas development is an important use of these lands. But any development must be pursued carefully and be subjected to rigorous upfront planning if we’re to continue enjoying our shared natural resources. The leases slated for sale to the energy industry in March currently do not include these critical checks and balances.

Other leases protested by the sportsmen are located in Utah’s popular Book Cliffs big-game hunting unit and in areas northeast of Monticello inhabited by mule deer, elk and Gunnison grouse. Gunnison grouse have suffered a 90-percent loss in historic habitat, and only eight extant populations of the birds remain.

“Current science demonstrates that Gunnison grouse populations are negatively affected by habitat loss and fragmentation, including areas used for breeding, nesting and brood rearing,” Webster continued. “Sportsmen want to see populations of these birds sustained and restored so that they continue to be classified as a game bird instead of ending up on the endangered species list. Oil and gas development as planned, including the protections proposed for the parcels up for sale, will not facilitate recovery of the Gunnison grouse – and it could contribute to the species’ further decline.”

“We have diligently examined energy development on public lands firsthand,” said TRCP Energy Initiative Manager Steve Belinda, “and we have concluded that the federal approach to oil and gas development does not work to sustain fish and wildlife resources at acceptable levels. Furthermore, it limits the range of multiple uses for public lands that our government is legally mandated to uphold.”

Recent events in Utah – the controversial December lease sale, the debacle over environmental analysis currently playing out in the Fillmore Field Office – only confirm that our system is broken. Sportsmen have a stake in fixing it.

“Interior Department Secretary Ken Salazar has stated that we need a new, comprehensive energy plan for public lands that upholds our fish and wildlife heritage,” concluded Belinda. “Hunters and anglers wholeheartedly agree. We offer our assistance in crafting this new approach and our support of efforts to more responsibly administer America’s shared natural resources.”

The TRCP believes that to better balance the concerns of fish and wildlife in the face of accelerating energy development, federal land management agencies must follow the conservation tenets outlined in the FACTS for Fish and Wildlife.

About:
Inspired by the legacy of Theodore Roosevelt, the TRCP is a coalition of organizations and grassroots partners working together to preserve the traditions of hunting and fishing.

Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership

WASHINGTON – -(AmmoLand.com)- A new study documenting the effects of natural gas drilling on mule deer in Wyoming’s Pinedale Anticline reaffirms the dire consequences of poorly planned development for wildlife and sporting opportunities, the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership announced today. Population declines of 30 percent and changes in distribution patterns were documented in phase two of the Sublette Mule Deer Study, which focused on a seven-year period of intense development of the anticline region.

“The fact that we have lost a third of this important mule deer herd is sobering enough,” said Dr. Rollin Sparrowe, TRCP interim board chairman, “yet even sadder is the knowledge that reliance on proper planning and sound science could have averted these losses altogether.

“The energy industry would have us believe that such losses are an unavoidable byproduct of development,” continued Sparrowe, a biologist with more than 40 years’ experience using science in wildlife management. “Sportsmen know better: Population declines of this magnitude are neither inevitable nor acceptable.”

The results of the multi-agency study confirmed a downward trend in the Mesa portion of the Sublette mule deer herd, as well as the animals’ depopulation of traditional winter range. Long-term displacement of wildlife such as mule deer from preferred habitat, including winter range, can severely affect herd numbers and overall species health.

[amazon-product alink="0000FF" bordercolor="000000" height="240"]1844074145[/amazon-product]“The troubling reality is that the population declines reported in this study are just the tip of the iceberg,” said TRCP Energy Initiative Manager Steve Belinda. “Thirty percent of this mule deer herd was lost with only 3 percent of the area disturbed by energy development. The Pinedale record of decision, released last year, authorizes drilling on an additional 12,000 acres of the anticline region, much of it prime mule deer winter range. We can expect significant downward trends in population numbers to continue if development proceeds on its present course.”

The study concludes that changes in the development of the Pinedale Anticline’s natural gas reserves could address the mule deer declines: “Efforts to minimize direct and indirect habitat loss should focus on technology and planning that reduce the number of well pads and the human activity associated with them.”

The results of the multi-agency study, prepared by Western Ecosystems Technology Inc. for the Bureau of Land Management, Wyoming Game and Fish Department and Questar and other energy companies, were trapped in a bureaucratic and political quagmire for more than two years and released only recently, long after the information could have been used by the public to evaluate plans for project expansion and incorporated into the Pinedale resource management plan. The delay also resulted in the study’s unavailability to the public for use in assessing the Wyoming Game and Fish Department’s revision of its oil and gas mitigation guidelines.

[amazon-product alink="0000FF" bordercolor="000000" height="240"]4431094288[/amazon-product]“Grave concerns exist regarding the future of this valuable mule deer herd,” concluded Belinda. “A 30-percent population loss is not a win for citizens, our fish and wildlife resources or our public lands. The fact remains that information contained in this study could have led to a better understanding of what has happened to this winter range through energy development. The data was available to everyone except the public during recent decisions about the fate of the area and its mule deer herds. Sportsmen will lose again – yet it doesn’t have to happen this way.”

The TRCP believes that to better balance the concerns of fish and wildlife in the face of accelerating energy development, federal land management agencies must follow the conservation tenets outlined in the FACTS for Fish and Wildlife. Sportsmen stand ready to work with the new administration and industry to return to the multiple-use principles that can ensure responsible management of America’s shared natural resources.

About:
Inspired by the legacy of Theodore Roosevelt, the TRCP is a coalition of organizations and grassroots partners working together to preserve the traditions of hunting and fishing.

Sportsmen For Responsible Energy

SALT LAKE CITY – A move by the Utah Bureau of Land Management to forgo comprehensive environmental analysis in its management of energy development on 4.7 million acres of federal public lands overseen by the agency’s Fillmore Field Office was criticized in a letter to Utah BLM Director Selma Sierra by numerous state and national sportsmen’s organizations, Sportsmen for Responsible Energy Development announced today.

The public lands encompassed by the Fillmore Field Office – the largest BLM field office in the state – include the Deep Creek Mountains in western Utah, home to mule deer, elk, bighorn sheep, sage grouse and Bonneville cutthroat trout. The agency’s decision to conduct a bare-bones environmental assessment, or EA, in place of a more detailed environmental impact statement, or EIS, in determining the course of future energy projects could jeopardize sensitive habitat and species that depend on it, the letter charges. Signatories include the Backcountry Hunters and Anglers, Federation of Fly Fishers, Mule Deer Foundation, National Wildlife Federation, Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership and Utah Council of Trout Unlimited. Most of the letter’s supporters are members of the SFRED coalition.

“These public lands provide irreplaceable fish and wildlife habitat and sporting opportunities,” said Bob Dibblee, chairman of Utah TU. “Too much is at stake to simply conduct a quick assessment and then rubber-stamp approval of a lease sale in this area. Populations of native Bonneville cutthroat trout in the Deep Creek Mountains are hanging by a thread. Rushing into leases in the region could be what snaps that last thread.”

In addition to valuable fisheries, Utah’s Fillmore Field Office comprises some of the state’s most coveted hunting units. Hunters from both Utah and out of state travel to the area to pursue deer and elk, and sportsmen’s groups assert that energy development must be properly planned if these sporting traditions are to continue.

“The BLM isn’t even maintaining the status quo in regards to planning before leasing on these 4.7 million acres,” said John Gale, a NWF regional representative. “Six other field offices in the state of Utah recently conducted environmental impact statements for oil and gas leasing, yet the Fillmore office is using an analysis that falls way short of the norm. A number of limited big-game hunting units could be at risk if the BLM doesn’t change course now and undertake the proper analysis.”

In late 2008, the BLM offered leases in the Fillmore Field Office and then deferred them in order to complete analysis only after sportsmen’s groups underscored the necessity of adequately assessing the impacts to fish, wildlife and sporting resources.

“The potential impacts of oil and gas leasing and development on the 4.7 million acres managed by the Fillmore office are of a magnitude and scale that inhibits and EA,” the letter continues. “While we recognize that the size of an area is not the sole factor that necessitates an EIS, we do believe that the outcomes of such decisions could significantly affect the management of fish, wildlife, water and recreational resources, thereby meeting the significance requirement that triggers an EIS.”

Don Duff, a retired fisheries biologist and BLM biologist who, nearly 35 years ago, identified isolated populations of Bonneville cutthroat trout in the Deep Creek Mountains and negotiated important agreements with landowners and the Goshute Tribe to restore native trout to the region’s waterways, said the EA findings are inconsistent with the fish and game resources on the ground.

“Deferring these leases in December represents a step forward,” said Duff, a volunteer with TU. “Not completing an EIS would take two steps back. Based on my knowledge of the fisheries resources in the proposed lease area, the FONSI response is just not credible. Proceeding without a full EIS makes no sense – it’s standard procedure throughout the state, both by the BLM and the U.S. Forest Service. The BLM should do the right thing on behalf of the fish and game in these mountains and, of course, the hunters and anglers who come to the Deeps every year.”

On Feb. 4, Interior Sec. Ken Salazar announced the withdrawal of 77 parcels offered in the Dec. 19 sale, which was dogged by controversy due to the sensitive nature of the areas to be leased.

“Overall, American sportsmen support public-lands energy development that is pursued in consideration of current science and the habitat needs of fish and wildlife,” said Joel Webster, a TRCP field representative. “This isn’t a case of having to decide between drilling or not drilling. This is about making sure that the BLM meets its obligation to hunters and anglers by properly evaluating and planning oil and gas leasing in a way that safeguards fish, wildlife and sportsmen’s values.”

Learn more about SFRED.

Read the sportsmen’s letter.

Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership

WASHINGTON – -(AmmoLand.com)- Spurred by concerns over the effects of energy development on valuable fish and wildlife habitat, the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership today filed an official protest of an upcoming Bureau of Land Management lease sale in Colorado. The sportsmen’s group objected to approximately 83,000 of the nearly 100,000 acres being offered in the Feb. 12 sale, which includes vital sage grouse habitat, big-game winter range and migration routes, and Colorado River cutthroat trout waters.

The TRCP protest of the Colorado leases follows the group’s objection, filed on Jan. 20, to Wyoming leases offered by the BLM in areas of wildlife habitat important to hunters and anglers. Protests like these are the only means for the public to participate in the leasing process. The TRCP has urged the incoming administration to prioritize review and revision of federal mineral leasing practices and management of the nation’s public lands.

Close to 60,000 of the protested acres are located within Colorado River cutthroat trout habitat, where energy development could degrade key waterways and result in this native fish’s further decline. Initially petitioned for listing under the Endangered Species Act in 1999, the Colorado River cutthroat twice received a “not warranted” decision regarding its threatened or endangered status, yet it was designated a “sensitive species” by the U.S. Forest Service and is subject to special state-level management guidelines. By leasing areas of designated habitat for the species, the BLM would violate a multi-agency conservation agreement pledging to “expedite implementation of conservation measures for Colorado River cutthroat trout.”

“A threatened or endangered listing for Colorado River cutthroat trout would give rise to an entirely new set of problems,” said TRCP Field Representative Ross Tuckwiller, “particularly for anglers and businesses that depend on them.

“The loss of a fishery to anglers could hurt communities that depend on sportsmen’s revenue and an industry that provides thousands of jobs and millions of dollars to support fisheries management – not to mention to the funds that state game agencies receive through angler licenses and fees,” continued Tuckwiller, who lives in Durango.

Mule deer habitat also was a factor in the TRCP’s decision to protest. Proposed leases encompass winter range and migration routes, habitat that the Colorado Division of Wildlife has specified as “vital” to the species’ survival and that, in the case of migration routes, was identified by the Western Governors Association as important in maintaining “significant, reliable wildlife populations.” Recent scientific studies demonstrate that energy projects established near migration routes can result in population declines in species such as mule deer.

“Sportsmen’s memories are not so short that they could forget about last spring, when the Colorado Division of Wildlife was forced to commence emergency feeding for mule deer in crucial winter range near Gunnison,” said TRCP Field Representative Dwayne Meadows. “Sportsmen agree that public-lands energy resources can be developed responsibly, but we maintain that certain habitats – such as big-game winter range and migration routes – should be better conserved to avoid unnecessary population losses.”

The TRCP protest follows the BLM’s decision to defer more than 16,000 acres originally slated for inclusion in the sale after local residents and La Plata County criticized specific leases in western Colorado and the timetable for their sale to industry.

“The fact that citizens are worried about the impacts that energy development could have on the value of their homes, their water quality and the public lands that form their backyards should surprise no one,” said TRCP Energy Initiative Manager Steve Belinda. “Apparently, however, this is a revelation to the Bureau of Land Management, whose disregard of the interests of the American public is cause for alarm.

“This lease sale forms the latest in a string of questionable decisions by the agency regarding its administration of our shared natural resources,” concluded Belinda, “and it reinforces our belief that America’s new leaders must prioritize review and revision of the mineral leasing process governing our public lands.”

The TRCP believes that to better balance the concerns of fish and wildlife in the face of accelerating energy development, federal land management agencies must follow the conservation tenets outlined in the FACTS for Fish and Wildlife.

About:
Inspired by the legacy of Theodore Roosevelt, the TRCP is a coalition of organizations and grassroots partners working together to preserve the traditions of hunting and fishing.