In the letter headlined “Master Lease Plan is superfluous,” (Journal, Oct. 9) Eric Sanford from Durango says that the Master Leasing Plan the BLM has initiated for La Plata and Montezuma counties to assess restrictions on leases for gas and oil development is unnecessary and somehow forced upon the BLM by the “opposition industry.” Is this mysterious opposition industry the wind turbine and solar panel manufacturers? Perhaps some “well-funded” environmental activism group? He goes on to say that these nefarious groups are determined “to stop all oil and gas development on federal lands.”
What Sanford also leaves out of his plea to get this “industry” out of the conversation is that he is a primary partner in SG Interests. This company is currently extracting gas and oil in Delta and Gunnison counties. (http://www.drillingedge.com/colorado/operators/sg-interests-i-ltd/77330).
Sanford is also a member of the SW Resource Advisory Council, an appointed group of representatives from the oil and gas industry as well as representatives from recreation, agriculture, landowners and conservation interests that works with the BLM to assess public opinion on the Master Leasing Plan. I am not a member of any well-funded opposition industry (I am still curious about who they are and how one could access their apparently overflowing coffers), but a working citizen of Montezuma County who, as a healthcare provider, is interested in the air and water quality of my area. I am also concerned about the well-documented negative health effects related to gas and oil extraction that have been published in peer-reviewed medical journals.
The MLP process has been embraced by other communities like those in Moab where citizens have worked along with industry to find a balance that works for all of them to maintain habitat, water resources, and grazing along with mineral extraction. I am wondering whether the citizens of Montezuma and La Plata counties would be better served by having another industry representative on the RAC other than Sanford so that this community-based process could proceed with more good-faith cooperation and less animosity.
Lyn Patrick
Mancos