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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTipton Thompson Divide 4.28.16~J'fKIN COUN'f~ BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS April 28 , 2016 The Honorable Scott Tipton United States House of Representatives 218 Cannon House Office Building Washington, DC 20515 RE: Proposed Western Colorado Lease Exchange and Conservation Act of2016. Dear Congressman Tipton: 530 E. Main Street, 3rd Flaor Aspen, Colorado 81611 phone (970) 920-5200 fax (970) 920-5198 For many years Pitkin County has been engaged in efforts to permanently protect the Thompson Divide region within Pitkin County from the detrimental impacts of natural gas exploration and extraction. Likewise, we have been concerned with the impacts from the associated activities of road and pipeline construction. Throughout this time Pitkin County has participated in discussions with the current lessees and other interested parties concerning possible purchase of the gas leases or the potential exchange of these leasehold interests with other leasehold interests in western Colorado. We are still willing to engage in discussions; however they have never been productive. The Bureau of Land Management, Colorado River Valley Field Office, has recognized that the leases within Pitkin County, with the exception of the Wolf Creek storage field, were issued without compliance with the National Environmental Protection Act and appropriate limitations and restrictions concerning surface disturbance and drilling operations. In response, the BLM has initiated a curative NEP A process which is anticipated to conclude the summer of 2016. The BLM has announced its proposed preferred alternative to be implemented by this NEP A action. This proposed preferred alternative anticipates the cancellation of 25 gas leases within or partially within Pitkin County as well as adjacent portions of Garfield County with a refund to the lessees of the original bid amounts as well as any other lease payments and fees that were paid during the leaseholds. These cancellations will protect, although not permanently, the Thompson Divide area within Pitkin and Garfield Counties as well as the communities of Carbondale and Glenwood Springs from the impacts of gas field development. Additionally, the proposed preferred alternative offered by the BLM will allow for the continuation of another 40 leases within the White River National Forest which are not impactive of the Thompson Divide located within Garfield, Mesa and Rio Blanco Counties. The action to be taken by the BLM will balance the needs of natural gas production with preserving areas of sensitive environmental quality utilized by recreationalists, hunters, and ranchers. THE HONORABLE SCOTT TIPTON APRIL 28, 2016 The timing of the offered proposed legislation is confusing considering the progress to this date of the BLM on its curative NEP A process and the equities presented by the BLM proposed preferred alternative action. The proposed legislation does not increase the benefits afforded to the communities of Pitkin County, Carbondale or Glenwood Springs in protection of the Thompson Divide region beyond what would be conferred through the BLM environmental review process. Neither does it promote natural gas development beyond what is contained within the terms of the BLM proposed preferred alternative. The only discernable change to the effect ofthe BLM's anticipated action will be to afford the current lessees, two corporate entities, an extraordinary windfall by giving significantly more valuable leased acreage than they currently have. In fact, the proposed legislation would render moot all of the effort, time and funds expended by the BLM in pursuing its NEP A review and balanced solution to environmental preservation and resource development while at the same time being detrimental to local residents, property owners and stake holders in the North Fork Valley. The inadequacies and inequities of the proposed legislation are reveled through an examination of its essential terms. Rather than the two lessees being confronted with cancellation of their leases they will be granted new leaseholds in other areas of Colorado. Importantly, the quality of the leases to be exchanged is not similar. The current leases have been held in excess oftheir original 10 year terms without any appreciable action taken on the part ofthe lessees to develop either the leases or the infrastructure needed to service the development of the leases. Therefore, even without the proposed cancellation of these leases by the BLM, they would very probably expire by their own terms before any work could be undertaken to develop the natural gas resources. The new leases to be offered to the lessees will have new, full, ten years terms allowing the lessees to be benefitted with lease terms, which combined with the original lease terms, to be in excess of 20 years. This 20 year period is afforded to the lessees without the burden of doing any work to develop the leases as required by the lease contracts issued by the BLM. Additionally, the new leases are located in areas already served by roads and pipelines that are necessary for the extraction of the natural gas. The costs to develop the new leased areas will be significantly less to the lessees than the costs associated with the existing leases. The new leases contemplated in the legislation will be located within areas of known production with proven quantities unlike the current leases which represent a greater risk to the lessees given the relative lack of production data available. The new leases are to be, by act of Congress, exempt from the typical associated environmental review and imposition of appropriate conditions required by the BLM prior to gas field development. This is a betrayal of the public's expectation that gas field development will happen only in a safe and conscientious manner. The new leases will be exempt from the National Environmental Protection Act, Federal Land Policy Management Act, and Mineral Leasing Act. These exemptions are particularly ironic in that the current leases were illegally issued, as recognized by the BLM, for failure to comply with these very same federal legal 2 THE HONORABLE SCOTT TIPTON APRIL 28, 2016 requirements. It is not enough to substitute the regulatory qualities of a NEP A review process with Secretarial oversight as is meekly offered in Section 4 (5). Finally, the proposed exchange will most assuredly not require any payment from the lessees to the federal government to reflect the increased value of their position as the methodology for appraisal will not be the accepted Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice as employed by the BLM. The appraisal methodology will make specific allowances for any and all sums expended by the lessees including but not limited to the sums paid by the lessees for legal fees, environmental surveys, physical surveys and permitting costs and even the interest on the sums paid for the leases. Notably absent from the proposed legislation are any of the provisions previously pursued by Senator Bennet in attempts to appropriately fashion a lease exchange. Particularly, there is no permanent protection or withdrawal ofthe leased areas from future leasing, virtually insuring that our communities will once again be confronted by the same development pressures and have to fight again to protect the Thompson Divide. The proposed legislation does not consider the new host communities' desires to protect their agricultural heritage or quality of life in the North Fork Valley, from the same detrimental impacts that we here in the Roaring Fork Valley have sought to protect ourselves. The legislation would simply shift to another community the negative impacts of resource development without appropriate environmental review. The proposed legislation will allow a lease exchange in the area of the Thompson Divide known as Wolf Creek and particularly the leases for production of gas which underlie the existing storage field in this area. However, in order not to affect the function of the storage field these leases will not be cancelled but rather made available to a municipality or other entity capable of holding operating leaseholds. The terms of such a transfer are not prescribed and therefore not realistically probable as any such municipality or entity would be subject to the whims of the current lessees for the terms of such a transfer. The proposed legislation concludes with the removal of the most fundamental level of scrutiny of drilling and extraction practices, Section 5, which by its terms does not apply to leases subject to the exchange. There appears to be a restriction on the Department of Interior which would prohibit any new or more restrictive stipulations on other gas lessees or require any actions from lessees that are inconsistent with any lease terms. These two statements would seem to preclude the BLM from conducting normal review and conditional approval of permits to drill and develop leases apart from any condition originally placed on a lease when the need for such conditions were not known to the BLM. Even if this provision were intended only to apply to the remaining leases in the White River National Forest that are subjeGt to the BLM's ongoing NEP A review and not part of the proposed exchange, there is no rational basis for permitting such a waiver of environmental review. It is unclear why such a provision is contained in the proposed legislation other than to further the benefits of avoidance of environmental regulations to these two lessees and perhaps to other lessees in other areas of the United States. There is no reasonable logic to justify such a wide exemption. 3 THE HONORABLE SCOTT TIPTON APRIL 28, 2016 As a consequence of the inclusions and omissions of the proposed legislation, Pitkin County cannot support its adoption. Pitkin County cannot support any legislation which would affect the lives of citizens and property owners that contains widespread exemptions from established federal statutes and absence of safeguards for the well-being of affected people. The communities in the Roaring Fork Valley associated with the Thompson Divide are worthy of protection as are the communities located in the North Fork Valley of the Gunnison. Pitkin County urges the Colorado delegation not to support the adoption of the Western Colorado Lease Exchange and Conservation Act of2016. Sincerely, PITKIN COUNTY BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS Rachel E. Richards Chair cc: Governor John Hickenlooper Senator Michael Bennet Senator Cory Gardner Congresswoman Diana DeGette Congressman Jared Polis Congressman Ken Buck Congressman Doug Lamborn Congressman Mike Coffman Congressman Ed Perlmutter Bob RandalVDeputy Director Colo. Department of Natural Resources Robert Bonnie/ Under Secretary of Agriculture for Natural Resources and Environment Neil KornzelDirector Bureau of Land Management Tommy Beaudreau/Chief of Staff U.S. Department of the Interior Ruth Welch/Colorado State Director Bureau of Land Management Board of County Commissioners of Gunnison County Board of County Commissioners of Delta County 4