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Developers seek access to public land
The Colorado State Land Board has been working rapidly to develop a portion of the former Lowry Bombing and Gunnery Range, a publicly-owned 40 square-mile open prairie southeast of Denver.
Environment Colorado opposes developing this open space. The majority of this land is held in the Stewardship Trust, a special designation where the board is mandated to manage the land to “protect and enhance the beauty, natural values, open space, and wildlife habitat.”
Developing this area will affect issues from water resources to transportation. Yet the Land Board is moving forward effectively without including regional stakeholders and the public.
“There is too much to lose for the Land Board to make decisions behind closed doors,” said Land Use Associate Pam Kiely. “We’re working hard to slow the pace and to make sure that the public has input.”
At press time, the Land Board was selecting which of three proposals by private developers to implement. These proposals were unveiled at an Election Day meeting, and continued the next day during business hours. Public participation was difficult as most Coloradans were either voting, or at work during these meetings.
“The Land Board is already rolling out the red carpet for developers —without answering whether developing this open prairie makes sense in the first place,” said Kiely.
Oil shale leases move forward
The Bush administration authorized oil shale leases for five sites in western Colorado, totaling 800 acres. The leases are to be divided among Shell, Chevron Corp. and EGL Resources.
Several leading environmental groups, including Environment Colorado and Western Colorado Congress, have been asking state officials to “Go Slow on Oil Shale.”
Oil shale is an inefficient source of energy and difficult to produce. According to a report released by Randy Udall, director of the Community Office for Resource Efficiency, producing oil shale requires massive amounts of electricity. Production of 100,000 barrels of oil a day (7 minutes worth of demand) would require a coal-fired power plant large enough to power a city of 500,000.
This is the first time that oil shale leases have been approved since the disastrous 1982 collapse of Exxon’s oil shale project in Parachute, between Rifle and Grand Junction, in which over 2,000 jobs were lost overnight and many local businesses went immediately bankrupt.
Environment Colorado will be making sure that our environment and economy is protected from oil shale processing. |
