Bush tells bureau to open land (Rockies)

[Nambe]

ASSOCIATED PRESS

The Bush administration has directed federal land managers to remove obstacles to oil and gas development in parts of five Rocky Mountain states.
Policy directives issued to Bureau of Land Management state directors give the officials tools to implement the administration's long-standing goal of opening the Rocky Mountain West to increased exploitation of oil and gas resources.
BLM field offices in Montana, Wyoming, Utah, Colorado and New Mexico will have until the end of the year to evaluate whether restrictions on oil and gas development can be removed. --

"This policy shifts the land management equation in favor of drilling and automatically assumes that oil and gas production is the top value of public lands," said Pete Morton, a resource economist with the Wilderness Society. "I think it's a position that is not consistent with BLM's mission and with the values that the American public holds for their land." ---

[aquart]

1. Those are red states he's planning to wreck, right?

[pinniped]

3. Red states, I think we're safe here, Bushvan the Terrible doesn't like CA.

Has there ever been a more phony president in recent times that has shown such utter disregard for the environment than this clown?

[Sean Reynolds]

2. No!

I love my mountains here in Utah. Why must he FUCKING drill for oil and gas here? Damn him - yet again Bush rapes the environment.

[DoYouEverWonder]

11. I don't know if it will help

But the Outdoor Outfitters Assoc. has threatened to cancel their annual convention in Utah if Bu$h goes ahead with these give aways of public lands.

The OOA is about has main stream (no pun intended) has you can get. Moving the show from SLC will have a big impact on the local economy.

[teryang]

4. Let the looting begin!

No stone is to be unturned in the corporate free for all conversion of public assets to private profit.

[PericlesJr]

5. The North American Natural Gas Shortage/Crisis Is Upon Us!

Hey Gang, like I had posted on another related thread, the US is facing a very real natural gas shortage/crisis at this very moment in time; expect to see more activity like this (i.e. the opening up national parks, preserves etc. for natural gas exploration). Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham hosted the Natural Gas (crisis) Summit in Washington D.C. at the Mayflower Hotel grand ballroom on June 26, 2003 which oddly enough was endorsed by the National Petroleum Council, and global corporations, like Dow Chemical.

Abraham was essentially told by the various industry representatives in attendance that they want more natural gas now and that they don't care how they get it. Natural gas is essential to the production of chemical fertilizers, pesticides, and most importantly it is used by many of the newer electrical power generating facilities.

The Bush Administration and their corporate cronies are in an apparent mad scramble to drill for more natural gas in order to stave off this potentially severe energy crisis before the winter months set in.

The U.S Economy could be hit severely within the coming months.

[jamesinca]

6. Don't forget Canada

They have told us tht they can not keep up with the demand that we are putting on them for natural gas. It was stated a few weeks back that the price of gas during the winter would probably double. drilling in the rockies will not solve the problem by then. They will probably still be in the exploration stage unless they lready know where it is. They will not be able to get it set up and ready to harvest until late winter early spring by the earliest. Canada at that point will be ready with more Natural gas, so it is pointless to drill and explore. Just another bit of LIHOP to tear this place apart.

[alfredo]

7. How many years have they known there would be a shortage?

It think it is another "force a crisis" trick like they pulled in mid 2001. Of course the crisis could be real this time. The last "crisis" fell apart when the Dems took control of the Senate and they stated that they would investigate price gouging. Prices dropped quickly, and fuel was found in places that had none while the Repubs were in charge. Even Saudi Arabia said it could ship more fuel. that Saudi reversal made me think they were witholding oil at Bush's request.

[Fovea]

9. Here we have a problem that conservation would help

and diversifying energy sources would help. But what is the Bush policy?
"Use all you want, we will invade more nations for it."

Go out and fly, but screw amtrak, go out an drive that SUV, and while you are at it, run over a cyclist.

We have been begging for this since the 70's. Now it is on us. Gee, I guess we should just roll over and take this, because we cant give up our gas suckers, can we?

We have met the evil empire, and they are us.

[JCMach1]

12. This winter will find the US in a MAJOR energy cost pinch

You are correct. If there is ANY disruption in say Venezuela, or Nigeria things get really dicey.

Iraq is not even up to pre-war production levels yet and oil and gas inventories are getting close to historic lows.

[SharonAnn]

15. Is this like California's Enron electricity shortage?

In other words, is it being artificially manipulated?

That's the first thing that I would expect is causing it.

[PericlesJr]

18. I am afraid to say that in this particular instance this shortage

is being driven by the finite nature of a geoligically endowed resource like natural gas and conventional oil. Contrary to what the cornucopians and the flat-earth economists and the unscrupulous politicians would like us to believe, industrial civilization as a whole is heading towards an irreversible decline in the capacity and sustainability of continued economic growth. This is obviously a result of the profligate, rapid depletion of our precious non-renewable energy resources like conventional oil and natural gas that are at the cornertstones of an ever-expanding material and energy resource intensive system like consumer-based capitalism.

[TennesseeWalker]

16. Read "The Party's Over" by Richard Heinberg

Eye-opening, readable book addressing the end of the era of cheap oil. It will change your perspectives of what is important in life. Go to www.museletter.com and check out an excerpt. I just finished it, and I recommend it highly. I even email the author to express my appreciation for the book, and the good professor even emailed me back! :)

[PericlesJr]

17. I've Read Heinberg's Book And I Agree It Is An Excellent Resource

Hi TennesseeWalker, Great To Hear From You; I have The Book And I have Read It And Agree Wholeheartedly That It Is an Excellent Resource!!!

I am fascinated by the subject of Peak Oil And Gas Depeletion! I believe it will be one of the primary driving factors for geoplolitical conflict in the very near future.


I have read several other books regarding Peak Oil and Resource Depletion that I must recommend to you:

"The Coming Oil Crisis" by Colin J. Campbell; he wrote the preface to Richard Heinberg's book. An Excellent Resource.

Check out his presentation on the subject of Peak Oil given to an audience at Clasthaul University, Germany in December Of 2000. The link is provided below.

http://www.rz.tu-clausthal.de/realvideo/event/peak-oil.ram


"Resource Wars: The New Global Landscape Of Conflict" written by Michael Klare.

"Hubbert's Peak: The Impending World Oil Crisis" written by Professor Kenneth Deffeyes


"Beyond Oil: The Threat to food and Fuel in the Coming Decades" by John Gever et al.


"Overshoot" written by William R. Catton Jr.


All great Resources.

I think Heinberg is right on target: "The Party Is Truly Over"


Cheers

Pericles Jr.

[havocmom]

8. Gotta hurry before the proof of global warming becomes too obvious

and people rethink this internal combustion engine thing.

Speaking as a westerner... there goes the neighborhood. And the salty water they pump outta the ground west of the divide will sterilize the ground, so food production will get harder in US too.

[hatrack]

10. From what I've read . . .

. . . coal-bed methane production has pissed off a LOT of ranchers and farmers in Wyoming. There's absolutely nothing they can do about the flooding of their lands with salt water from the pumping process, which renders the ground too contaminated for little things like, oh, y'know, ranching and farming.

[havocmom]

13. Yeah and there is more...

The extraction companies can go on a chap's private property and put up roads, tear down fences that are in their way, bascially do what they damn well please in the process of getting to whatever they want under the ground.

I do expect there will be some major problems involving extraction companies' employees, gunpowder and ranchers who find out they have no rights to protect their lands. It will get ugly when folks see their homes turned into sterile lands full of big trucks.

edit: typos

[TennesseeWalker]

14. OK...anybody out there NOW

think that Dubya and Al Gore weren't so different?