Response to Protests of August 14th Lease Sale - September 29, 2008

BLM Announces August 2008 Oil and Gas Lease Sale, to Include Roan Plateau Parcels - June 9, 2008

BLM’s Roan Plateau plan moves forward - March 13, 2008

Additional Information and Factsheets - March 13, 2008

A message from State Director Sally Wisely

After a seven-year planning effort of working with the public, and the state and local governments to develop a management plan for the Roan Plateau, the Bureau of Land Management has issued the second of two Records of Decision.

I want to thank everyone who has participated in the long Roan Plateau Planning process: the public, local governments, and our formal Cooperating Agencies on this plan – Garfield and Rio Blanco counties, the town of Parachute, cities of Glenwood Springs and Rifle, and the Colorado Department of Natural Resources. The BLM particularly appreciates the hard work and input that Governor Ritter and his staff have provided. That input has improved this plan and will help guide our implementation.

This second Record of Decision, or ROD, designates 21,034 acres as Areas of Critical Environmental Concern (ACEC) and upholds strict protections for these areas including no surface occupancy stipulations for all of the ACEC areas. These acres were not addressed in the ROD issued in June 2007, which made a number of land management decisions and authorized oil and gas leasing. This second and final ROD completes the innovative Proposed Roan Plateau Resource Management Plan, which we released last fall.

The Roan Plan is the result of a highly collaborative public planning process that began in 2000. It evolved directly from public involvement and close coordination with our Cooperating Agencies. Indeed, the framework on which this management plan is built comes from a progressive proposal submitted by the Department of Natural Resources.

This significant time and effort produced a truly innovative plan – a plan that offers strong protection for fish and wildlife habitat, scenic views, and ecologically sensitive areas, yet still allows most of the federal natural gas resource to be recovered from beneath the Roan Plateau Planning Area.

And that gas resource is significant. The federal natural gas resources under the Roan Planning Area hold enough energy to heat 4 million homes for 20 years.

In fact, the Roan was originally set aside as Naval Oil Shale Reserves 1 and 3 because of its rich energy resources. These mineral reserves were transferred from the Department of Energy to BLM in 1997 through an Act of Congress. That Act specifically directed BLM to lease the lands for the exploration, development and production of petroleum resources as soon as practicable. This clearly included the top of the Roan Plateau.

The Roan also holds other important resources – genetically pure Colorado River cutthroat trout, wildlife habitat, scenic views and water resources. From the very start of this long planning effort, BLM has sought to protect these resources while meeting the specific direction of Congress to lease the area for oil and gas.

Development on top of the Plateau will be conducted in a staged, ridge-by-ridge approach, with well pads more than ½ miles apart to minimize wildlife habitat fragmentation. Development on top of the Plateau will be confined to corridors along existing roads. Surface disturbance on top is limited to one percent, or approximately 350 acres, at any one time. This phased approach to development encourages innovation in minimizing disturbance and reclaiming disturbed areas. Leases for the top of the Plateau will require operators to enter into a single federal unit. A federal unit requires consolidation of planning and operations under a single unit operator. This more efficient approach reduces impacts to other natural resources by consolidating infrastructure and providing for a more orderly, planned development.

Under the Roan Plan, all of the ACEC acres will be managed under no surface occupancy stipulations, which means no surface disturbance is allowed. When the ACECs are taken with the additional 17,336 acres stipulated no surface occupancy in the first ROD, more than 50 percent – 38,470 acres - of the planning area will be stipulated no surface occupancy.

We at BLM know that leasing the Roan Plateau for oil and gas development is controversial, even given the clear direction from Congress to do so. We know this plan doesn’t give everyone everything they wanted. But we are proud of this highly protective plan, and the collaborative process used to develop it.

We are committed to protecting sensitive resources while allowing responsible energy development. We will continue to work closely with the state and local governments, and stakeholders as we move forward.

Additional Information and Factsheets - March 13, 2008