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Guess how much BLM land is open for drilling?

Wilderness group wants more balanced uses

DENVER – Ninety-four percent for gas and oil development, 6 percent for everything else.

An analysis from The Wilderness Society shows that the Bureau of Land Management has made almost all its land within Colorado available for development. Nada Culver, director of the society’s BLM Action Center, said the stats prove that the gas and oil industry has an unfair advantage.

“Right now, every other use has to kind of fight for a chance,” she said, “while oil and gas seems to have the deferred seat at the top.”

BLM resource management plans in Western states were examined for the report, which found that the agency has strict standards for deciding which lands should be managed for recreation or the environment; but, the same standards are not applied to gas and oil leasing decisions.

Culver said the BLM should address imbalances, identify areas for conservation and recreation, incorporate Master Leasing Plans – which the agency is beginning to do – and prescreen which areas might be best for gas and oil drilling.

“Time to update the status quo and be smarter about this,” she said. “Let’s put leasing and development where it will be most successful – high-potential areas; low-conflict as much as possible. Let’s take a better approach.”

She cited another detail from the report: Of the 36 million acres of BLM land under gas and oil leases throughout the West, only about 12.5 million are in production. In addition, thousands of drilling permits have been issued but have not been used.

The report, “Open for Business,” is online at http://bit.ly/1pcIMd0.



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