Our View - Wednesday
A familiar drill
Ritter’s pandering will cost ratepayers plenty
Gov. Bill Ritter stepped off a helicopter and into hot water July 3, when, after an aerial tour of Northwestern Colorado with Sen. Ken Salazar, he declared that the Vermillion Basin should be off limits to oil and gas drilling. His opposition apparently came in an epiphany. “The governor in a moment of spontaneity asked the pilot to land on the Vermillion,” Ritter spokesman Evan Dreyer told the media. “He felt it would be important to stand on the Vermillion with the senator (Salazar) to get a sense of the place.”
In all this communing with nature, Ritter evidently forgot to consult with local elected officials, who worked for years to draw up a leasing plan they are happy with and who say a drilling ban will cost their citizens millions of dollars in tax and royalty revenues. They weren’t pleased.
“The local newspapers reported that you landed in a helicopter on Lookout Mountain overlooking Vermillion Basin and discussed the need to establish a vision for future management of the area,” Moffat County Commissioners wrote to Ritter. “Governor, we do have a vision for Vermillion Basin and take great offense to you flying from the Front Range, standing on one of our community’s mountains, and attempting to recreate a vision that we have put our sweat and blood into over the last several years.”
Commissioners pointed out that energy development in the basin is something they welcome. But suddenly, after years of consultations and public process, Ritter is attempting to monkey-wrench the arrangement. That’s becoming a pattern with this governor. He’s also attempting to derail oil and gas leases on top of the Roan Plateau, another suddenly sacrosanct area for anti-drilling extremists, and is in the process of packing the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission with people who are indifferent or hostile to the industry.
The Wilderness Society and Colorado Environmental Coalition evidently have more clout with Ritter than do the citizens of Moffat County, or average energy consumers for that matter, who may pay a high price for Ritter’s pander to a key Democratic Party constituency.
In a letter to the Bureau of Land Management, state Natural Resources Director Harris Sherman said the basin should be set aside as habitat for the greater sage grouse, a bird not even on the endangered species list. And he dismissed the estimated 9.9 trillion cubic feet of natural gas under the basin as insignificant. “We do not believe such a decision will impact gas production to any measurable degree,” Sherman wrote.
But given that utility rates in the state are soon expected to spike upward, as the Rockies Express natural gas pipeline begins opening markets back east to “our” natural gas, Sherman’s shrug may come back to haunt his boss. If Ritter succeeds is derailing drilling in the Vermillion Basin and on top of the Roan Plateau, that would represent a significant loss to the energy market, further tightening supplies and increasing prices. It might slow the economy and discourage companies from operating here. You can’t heat your home with sage grouse.
And let’s not forget: Ritter is also in the midst of a major overhaul of the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, purging members with industry experience in favor of individuals with political agendas. “Some of the governor’s (commission) picks appear to be opposed to drilling in general, and it just makes no sense for them to be on the commission,” according to State Sen. Greg Brophy, R-Wray. “It’s like appointing an avowed pacifist to be the nation’s secretary of defense.”
Brophy fears that stacking the commission against the industry will cost the state revenue and jobs, pointing to a study by the Colorado School of Mines indicating that oil and gas activity generated nearly $23 billion in 2005, or about 6 percent of the state’s economy. As well, the industry generates an estimated 70,000 good-paying jobs. “That’s a lot of prosperity to go around for the whole state,” Brophy said.
Just as we can’t allow oil and gas companies to run roughshod over the state, we also can’t let the state run roughshod over energy companies. Striking a sensible balance is critical. But we see alarming signs that Ritter is unbalanced, politically speaking, and too closely allied with anti-drilling groups. It’s almost as though he and they are bent on turning Colorado’s energy boom into a bust.
Theft of our liberties would be real crime
It’s every parent’s worst nightmare. And it’s on the way. “Grand Theft Auto IV,” the latest version of the most offensive, raunchy and controversial video-game series of all time, heads to stores this October. It’ll likely be rated M for mature, meaning no one under 17 should get their hands on the game. But it’ll still sell millions of copies, make its manufacturers a fortune and — almost as predictably — prompt calls for action in Congress, ranging from outright censorship to more “voluntary” restraint by video-game makers.
Previous versions of the game caused such stirs.
But here’s a better idea. Let’s not put up with Congress trying to parent, or, as some people would have it, to nanny our children. These people can’t balance a budget and most don’t even read the laws they impose on the rest of us. Do you really want them to take on the parenting role for your kids?
Your kids belong to you, not the government. You can best make decisions about what they read, watch and listen to. But this assumes that parents take an active interest in such matters. Some parents care more than others do about whether their kids are getting a video education in pistol-whipping, carjacking and killing, which is what it takes to “win” this “game.” But we shouldn’t allow an irresponsible or indifferent minority of parents to serve as an invitation for Congress to execute another “Grand theft” of our personal liberties.
