BLM Pressured To Lift Seasonal Drilling Limits Which Protect Wildlife

WASHINGTON - A request to allow year-round drilling for natural gas on federal lands in Wyoming has heated up the energy debate as the Bush administration projects a third more applications for drilling across the West in 2006. The public has until Nov. 19 to comment on the proposal for what’s known as the Pinedale Anticline.

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management currently bars winter drilling in the area to avoid disturbing big game. But the agency is preparing a new environmental study of the effects of year-round drilling at the request of three energy companies: Anschutz Pinedale Corp., Shell Exploration & Production Co., and Ultra Resources.

Matt Anderson, project manager for the BLM in Pinedale, said preparing the study on the effects of year-round drilling would probably take a year. If year-round drilling is authorized, Anderson said, companies could consolidate drilling pads in a way that reduces habitat fragmentation and protects more land in winter ranges. Spokesmen for the companies also said that allowing them to drill year-round would allow them to use more directional drilling and reduce the amount of surface disturbance.

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Six Republican senators attended the hearing and aggressively questioned (ed. - BLM Director Kathleen) Clarke on what the agency is doing to speed the permitting process. "The cost of gas has dislocated the economy and is sending it offshore," said Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho. "There is nothing more important in this country right now." Montana Republican Conrad Burns, chairman of the subcommittee, agreed. "All segments of the economy are directly impacted by the costs of fuel to produce and move our output," he said. Logan Magruder, president of the Independent Petroleum Association of Mountain States, testified that high natural gas prices are a result of burdensome environmental reviews and laws such as the Endangered Species Act that restrict development.

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http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9824550/

Gawd. Beyond disgusting.
And "the other" agency isn't any better, maybe a smidge more subtle, but probably not.
We gotta get our country back from these freaks.