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KSJD Newscast - February 15th, 2016

  • Some twenty citizens spoke in favor of creating an oil and gas master leasing plan in Montezuma County at a meeting in Mancos, but BLM officials say decision has not been made to move ahead.

Some 20 citizens spoke in favor of creating an oil and gas Master Leasing Plan in Montezuma County at a meeting Thursday night in Mancos. But Bureau of Land Management officials said a decision has not been made to move ahead. A sub-group of the BLM’s Southwest Resource Advisory Council is taking input on whether to craft a plan to establish guidelines for energy development in an area from La Plata County west to Mesa Verde. Guidelines could include protections for air and water quality, night skies, and views. The sub-group was cautious. Industry regulatory specialist Chris Lopez warned that an MLP process can be lengthy. He said in 2010 a group decided an MLP was warranted in the Greater Canyonlands area, but six years later a committee has not even been formed. Industry representative Eric Sanford said private-land acreage outnumbers public acres in the proposed MLP area here and the BLM would not control development of those energy resources. Jimbo Buickerood of the San Juan Citizens Alliance urged that the MLP process move quickly and said without an MLP, concerned citizens must monitor every drilling application individually. The Mancos meeting followed one earlier that day in Durango at which citizens were upset because they had only 1 minute to make their comments. In Mancos, they were allowed 3.

Gail Binkly is a career journalist who has worked for the Colorado Springs Gazette and Cortez Journal, and was the editor of the Four Corners Free Press, based in Cortez.
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