April 9, 2012

SandBoxBlogs: Glenwood Springs Post Independent "Garfield commissioners sign joint oil shale resolution"

(See related stories here)

John Stroud:
"“This resolution has a very negative tone … which just takes away from the real issue,” he said.

The multi-county position statement supports the 2008 BLM decision, approved in the waning days of the Bush administration. A draft version of the resolution came out of a late March meeting of county commissioners from the affected counties.

It takes the BLM to task for what the affected view as listening more closely to “anti-oil-shale and pro-wilderness groups” in revising the oil shale plan. The revised EIS was required in a 2009 legal settlement between the BLM and 13 environmental groups that filed suit over the Bush-era plan.

“Are there some harsh words in here? Yes there are,” Commissioner Mike Samson said in supporting the resolution. “We're tired of things being done against us, so there is some resentment on our part.

“Maybe that's what it takes to get Congress's attention, and to take us serious,” he said. “Instead of fighting energy development at every step of the way, we're saying, please work with us.”

Commissioner Tom Jankvosky has been the lead representative for Garfield County, as an official cooperating agency, working with the BLM on the EIS revision. He said the BLM's preferred alternative wasn't even contemplated until late in the game last fall.

“There are some radical things stated here,” he said of the resolution. “But it's meant to say that if we can't have some reasonable process for oil shale research and development, then we set ourselves up for a rush to drill in the future. Then we will all be very drastically impacted.”...."
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1 comment:

hammerandnails said...

There isn't much that I agree with anymore when it comes to Jankovsky. But he's dead-on with the tougher muscle talk. It's like securing the border before anybody on either side can sit down and accomplish anything when it comes to immigration reform. It has to be done. Unpopular, hated almost but has to be done. You've sometimes got to put the hammer down and get somebody's attention before you can even begin the process of getting to win-win. Good one from the BOCC on this.