Energy policy
and the intermountain west

Opinion by Vera Smith, Conservation Director

This week’s Wild Colorado feature focuses on Adobe Town, a wild and rugged yet little-known part of southern Wyoming that is facing imminent energy development. The author, Erik Molvar, who has hiked and explored the inner reaches of this remarkable area, sings its praises while at the same time fearing for its future. Adobe Town, although wild and remote, is on the list for potential energy leasing, and the likelihood of protecting it has diminished markedly with recent Department of Interior decisions.

Under last year’s decision by the Department of Interior, the Bureau of Land Management is not allowed to designate qualifying lands as Wilderness Study Areas. Moreover, the Department has instructed the BLM to place energy development as the top priority, forcing the agency to request special dispensation from Washington D.C. to exempt lands, regardless of their values, from energy leasing.

Many have criticized the Department of Interior for its intense emphasis on energy development, as well as its disinterest in protecting the wide open spaces of the intermountain west. They question the motivations behind the leasing, since seventy-three percent of existing public land leases in the region still languish undeveloped.

The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska is often viewed as the battleground where the energy versus environment  debate is played out. However, while many are focused on the Refuge, the intermountain west is being leased and drilled at an unprecedented rate.

The CMC is following these lease sales and urging the BLM not to lease Colorado Wilderness Proposal areas and roadless areas; these ecological islands/oases must be spared in the face of massive development across the west. More generally, the CMC is continuously imploring the BLM to adopt a balanced approach to management that allows for reasonable resource development while recognizing and taking steps to protect areas that have significant ecological values. To date, our pleas have landed on relatively deaf ears.

Just as Colorado is being forced by our current drought to ask hard questions about water conservation and planning, Colorado (and the nation) should be asking hard questions about energy development and conservation. This includes looking at the impacts of massive fossil fuel extraction on our public lands today and into the future, as well as seriously planning a sustainable energy future.

Adobe Town sits just north of the Colorado border. An expansive desert terrain, it is one of the few large undeveloped roadless areas in southern Wyoming that has not yet been subjected to energy development. Through words and images, Erik leads you through the historical and biological wonders of this desert jewel, painting a picture of what may be lost to our insatiable quest for fossil fuels.

An honest discussion about how to craft a sustainable energy future is way past due. Let’s have it before we needlessly sacrifice places like Adobe Town. P