CRAIG — A federal proposal for managing land that oil and gas companies have targeted  in the northwest part of thes tate would keep energy development from occuring in the remote Vermillion Basin.

Reported by Staff

The  proposed management plan announced yesterday by the Bureau of Land Management is intended to protect 242,000 acres in the basin from oil and gas development. The area is highly valued by conservation groups for its wildlife habitat, sandstone cliffs and petroglyphs, so it is not surprising that the Wilderness Society praised the plan, and Gov. Ritter said the decision upholds the spirit of energy development in a way that doesn’t irreparably harm natural resources or communities.

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 Sometime in late July the agency will release the proposed management plan and open a 30-day protest period on it in late July.

Offering a counter view was a Moffat County commissioner who said the move could cost the state jobs and revenues. An oil and gas trade association on the West Slope also expressed disappointment with the decision.

A few years ago the BLM released a draft plan for nearly 2 million acres of federal minerals managed by its fields offices in Western Colorado. The document suggested opening 77,000 acres of the Vermillion Basin to energy leases, with some restrictions on development.

Another Moffat County commissioner, Audrey Danner, said she was surprised that original proposal was turned aside by this latest plan.

“There was an extensive amount of public process that went into that decision making, and that was an opportunity to have use of the Vermillion Basin for energy extraction in a very controlled way, and to have the opportunity to protect that basin as a very beautiful natural amenity,” Danner told the Associated Press.

“This decision by the BLM is commendable, but it’s just one aspect of a much larger management plan expected later in July. We’re hopeful the comprehensive final plan will restore some balance to an area targeted by oil and gas industry for years now,” commented Soren Jespersen, northwest Colorado wildlands coordinator at The Wilderness Society.

The BLM noted that more than 1 million acres in the mineral-rich region are leased for oil and gas in the Little Snake area, but less than 15 percent of the leases have been developed for oil and gas.

Some local politicians in Moffat County wanted the Vermillion Basin opened up to development. Commissioner Tom Mathers is among them and he and others are still upset over Ritter’s declaration in 2007 that the Basin should not be available for energy development.

Mathers said allowing drilling on the basin would bring jobs and tax revenue to the state and county. “It’s a lot of dollar signs,” he said.

BLM countered in a written statement from the agency’s Colorado Director, Helen Hankins, that the new proposal presents a balanced approach to oil and gas leasing and development.

Factoring into the issue is the natural gas supply in the region. The Wilderness Society contends the Vermillion Basin contains less than 5 percent of technically recoverable natural gas in the Little Snake resource area and about 1 percent of the oil. The BLM has estimated its management plan addresses 9.9 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.

As for Governor Ritter, he offered the following in a written statement: “The Vermillion Basin is a stark, untrammeled landscape of fragile beauty. It contains just 2 percent of the high oil and gas potential in the Little Snake management area. But because of the arid conditions that make this basin so spectacular, the impacts of gas development would literally last forever,” Ritter said in a written statement.

“My administration supports the natural gas industry as a mission-critical driver of our New Energy Economy. But energy development must occur in a way that does not cause irreparable harm to our environment, other natural resources, wildlife or to our citizens and communities,” he said.