postcards from marilyn 37

thank you senator allard for your involvement in helping to bring sensibility to our woes on western slope ....

it is very disconcerting that governor ritter will not take into consideration our garfield county local businesses and economy on the western slopes ....m

Feds: New drilling rules won't apply on our lands

By GARY HARMON
The Daily Sentinel

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

New drilling regulations being considered by a Colorado agency wouldn’t apply to federal land, the largest part of western Colorado lands, the Bureau of Land Management said in a letter it sent to the group.

Sally Wisely, state director for the bureau, wrote to the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, saying federal legislation preempts state law when state laws “stand as an obstacle” against the will of Congress.

The state, however, isn’t backing down from its authority, said Deb Frazier, spokeswoman for the Colorado Department of Natural Resources.

Three draft regulations before the commission affect wildlife-timing restrictions, geographic-area plans and reclamation.

Wildlife-timing restrictions were frequently criticized at a commission hearing earlier this month because they would set a moratorium on drilling for at least three months each year, potentially crippling western Colorado’s booming energy industry.

Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo., also jumped into the fray Tuesday, writing to the departments of Interior and Agriculture to express his concern that the state “is overstepping its jurisdiction in attempting to regulate oil and gas activity” on federal and Southern Ute tribe lands.

Most of the 2,000 people who attended the Grand Junction hearing at Two Rivers Convention Center asked the commission not to impose the moratorium.

In a footnote to her letter, Wisely noted the draft regulations set up a way to “harmonize state and local regulations.”

“Oddly, the draft regulations contain no such procedure for the federal government, the largest landowner in the state,” Wisely wrote.

The commission is taking comment and considering the rules through the month in Denver.

Colorado Petroleum Association representatives cited the letter in testimony Tuesday in Denver, making it a part of the record, Frazier said. Bureau officials said Wisely’s letter was hand-delivered to the state on June 6.

In her letter, Wisely wrote that the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission could sidestep a confrontation by adding language to the draft rules that acknowledges the state rules don’t apply to federal lands or federally owned minerals without the concurrence of the bureau.

Colorado, however, “has authority under state and federal law to manage wildlife on state and public lands,” Frazier said, noting the federal agency also has timing and other restrictions intended to protect wildlife.

State officials have been difficult to reach for discussions of wildlife and other energy-related issues, Wisely wrote.

The bureau wrote to state officials in May to express surprise that the draft rules fail to acknowledge the 17-year-old working agreement between the bureau and the state agency.

Even though meetings among officials were proposed, “Those meetings still have not taken place, nor has BLM received a reply to its May letter,” Wisely wrote.

Frazier said she couldn’t address why those meetings hadn’t taken place.