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Wyoming News

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05/08/2008

Sage grouse slipping away


You wouldn't know it by all the action I saw that morning, but according to the experts, the Hat Six lek -- the most watched sage grouse strutting area in the world -- is in big trouble.  In 2000, observers spotted as many as 67 male grouse strutting in a single day at Hat Six. The high counts of each of the following years fluctuated from 33 birds in 2001 to 45 birds in 2005. Last year the most birds observed in a day was 30. This year no more than 20 have been seen on the lek. Read article in Casper Star Tribune.

05/05/2008

BLM reviews drilling comments


The Bureau of Land Management is reviewing some 100,000 comments it received on a proposal to allow nearly 4,400 more natural gas wells on the Pinedale Anticline in southwest Wyoming.I t's the biggest number of comments the agency has received on a proposal since the BLM proposed allowing oil and gas development in the Jack Morrow Hills area of the Red Desert in southwest Wyoming. Read article in Casper Star Tribune.

05/04/2008

Group plans protest of Sublette air problems


Retired high school science teacher Elaine Crumpley has helped organized what she's calling a "peaceful protest" to be staged from 1 to 3 p.m. today on the Pinedale Anticline. It's an attempt to call attention to a proposed gas-field development plan some area residents believe would sacrifice public health in the name of big profits for energy companies. They're retired educators, some of them scientists, some students and others just worried locals, concerned about the air they breathe and the future of the town they live in. Read article in Casper Star Tribune.

05/03/2008

Gov blasts BLM plan


 Gov. Dave Freudenthal on Friday said the U.S. Bureau of Land Management's latest draft of a plan for managing oil and gas drilling in the Pinedale area was unacceptable. Freudenthal's 5,000-word letter to officials in the BLM Pinedale office said cooperating agencies, such as Wyoming state government, have been largely excluded from the plan's development. Read article at Casper Star Tribune.

04/30/2008

Forest Service struggling with Wyoming Range


Freudenthal has already sent two livid letters to the Forest Service deriding the agency’s rash choice of including Stanley Energy, or Stanley, in initial discussions about the Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (DSEIS), a document due for release in November that will determine whether 44,720 acres on the Wyoming Range should be leased for energy development. Although the Forest Service announced last week that Stanley will no longer be included in the meetings about the environmental studies, the governor has demanded that the agency trash the DSEIS and start anew, or at least pace its “aggressive timeline” and allow more public input with a Reasonably Foreseeable Development (RFD). Read article in Pinedale Roundup.

04/30/2008

Wyoming’s air is getting a little thick


Recently, I heard an ozone warning for the first time on Wyoming radio. I grew up in the tiny town of Saratoga and have lived in Wyoming for 27 of my 34 years, and during that time I’ve watched air quality decrease in other places -- like Denver. But I never expected to hear air-quality alerts in Sublette County, Wyo., where hardly anybody lives. Read article in High Country News.

04/30/2008

Wyoming Range - Energy leasing advances


Bridger-Teton officials have elected to continue a NEPA analysis on 44,700-acres of contested oil and gas leasing in the Wyoming Range, even after admitting that one energy company has exerted undo influence on the process. The controversy comes at the end of a comment period on the analysis that drew more than 12,701 letters from the public. According to Forest Service officials, roughly 99 percent of the people who commented expressed opposition to the drilling. Read article in Jackson Hole News & Guide.

04/29/2008

Residents form air quality group


Some Sublette County residents have formed a group to investigate air quality problems. The new group is called Citizens Learning About Ozone's Unhealthy Destruction, or CLOUD.  Read article in Billings Gazette.

04/27/2008

Rig decline clouds future growth


Generally, it takes more and more wells to produce the same amount of gas each year. It's known in the industry as the "decline ratio." So in order to sustain the Rocky Mountain region's 4 percent average annual production increase, the industry must exponentially increase the number of wells it has on the ground today. Industry officials say they're getting too much push-back from conservationists in places including Colorado, the Pinedale Anticline and the Wyoming Range to maintain the same rate of production growth recorded in recent years. Read article in Casper Star Tribune.

04/25/2008

More wells under new rules would improve Sublette air, officials say


It might seem like an absurd argument to make: If operators are allowed to drill 4,400 new gas wells in the Pinedale Anticline, the field will create less air pollution than it currently does with fewer than 1,000 wells. But that's precisely the line of reasoning put forth Thursday by officials with both the federal Bureau of Land Management and the state's Department of Environmental Quality. DEQ Director John Corra acknowledged that the argument is counter-intuitive. Read article in Casper Star Tribune.

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