As a hunter, veteran and co-chair of Colorado Backcountry Hunters and Anglers, I’m concerned about the few remaining wild places and wide open spaces in our state, such as the Roan Plateau, which the Bureau of Land Management is intent on opening up for oil and gas drilling.
Some who want to drill the Roan Plateau point out that protecting it from natural gas drilling would cost $1 billion up front to Colorado taxpayers. However, Brian O’Donnell, public lands director for Trout Unlimited, says that hunting, fishing and wildlife viewing generated about $1.4 billion in Colorado during 2002, the most recent year for which figures were available. The revenue comes from fishing and hunting licenses, jobs created by wildlife, travel and lodging expenses and equipment purchases, he said. “It’s a recurring economic benefit.”
State Rep. Dan Gibbs says that although energy development is important to Colorado’s economy, wildlife is a big part of the state’s tourism draw, with hunting and fishing contributing to the state’s overall take of at least $8 billion from recreation and tourism.
Besides, the known oil in Colorado would supply national demand for a paltry 11 days. The entire Rockies region has known oil supplies sufficient for 100 days of national use, and these projections are contingent on zero demand growth. And fully 88 percent of the public lands in the Rocky Mountains are already open for oil and gas drilling.
In Colorado, between 1982 and 2004, oil and gas companies had access to 15.8 million acres of public land — about onefourth of the entire state. But from 1989 to 2003, they produced enough oil to power the country for one day, and enough gas for less than two weeks.
Unfortunately, like so many short-sighted people and politicians, those supporting Roan Plateau drilling have yet to learn that when you’re addicted to something you don’t go looking for a pusher, you look for therapy. They apparently fail to comprehend that the cost of oil and gas, the real cost, is not just what we’re paying at the pump. It’s what we’re paying in Iraq.
