Oil, Gas Leasing a Win-Win for Taxpayers
By Gene Terland
BLM Montana State Director
A look toward the past often helps us set future goals, but if your New Year's resolution involves energy independence, you might need binoculars for your retrospective view. The last time the U.S. produced more energy than it used, Harry Truman was still president.
That was 1952, and a lot has changed since then. Montana has changed too. We have more people living in more and bigger houses. We have more people driving cars and pickups and SUVs and ATVs and boats and motor homes. We have more people wanting to hunt or fish or hike or just get away from it all. We have more people wanting more public lands preserved in a pristine condition.
Unfortunately, one thing hasn't changed; we don't have any more land, just more pressure from all directions to use it.
This article appeared in the Billings, MT, Gazette, January 12, 2008.
http://www.blm.gov/wo/st/en/info/newsroom/2008/january/NF_080116.html