For an Energy Boomtown in Colorado, Heady Days Bring Growth and Anxiety
Reader Comments
drilling on public land
One of many things to consider, in addition to the impact on wildlife, water & air quality, the beauty of our dwindling natural scene, our continuing need for energy: anyone living adjacent to national forests or BLM land that drilling companies have leased, should brace themselves for what's coming under "drill baby drill" policies. Check the laws--what share of taxes resulting from drillers' profits will your impacted local infrastructure reap--providing oil/gas is found? By the time federal,state, and county take their cut, what will be left to repair the roads that go past your property once those big trucks finish rumbling to the drilling sites that were chosen, not deep in the woods and far away from human habitat, but as close as possible to the very culverts, bridges, and roads that lead to the wilderness that borders your property? What will become of all those beautiful, unobstructed views you thought were protected when you bought your property? While you're checking into the local legalities, it might be a good thing to see if you own your own mineral rights. If not, you may find a drilling rig right on your own north forty...and not have much of a say about it, the oil/gas that's extracted right under your nose, or the money someone else is making from below the surface of the ground you live on!
Writing from a small Colorado town not far from national forest land currently leased for wildcat (exploratory) gas drilling/fracking projected to begin this spring...
Judith Harrington
article
well boys and girls this article is about 2 years to late they , the gas industry , are pulling about 40 % of the rigs out so says the rocky mt news ... gas prices are low now about 6.25 per unit, wholesale . talk of layin down the rigs . my understanding is that means close the valve on existing well s til the price gos up... there are more places to rent and there is some ...not to much unemploymnet .. this article must have been written 6 months ago and just got published.
Those Against It?
Those against the Domestic Energy Industry Boom are either too rich to care and want to pretend that every Rancher, Hunter and Outdoorsman, who have been here taking care of the environment for much longer than they have, don't give a darn about the environment! Only those idealist (usually City Slickers) who believe the "all the little forest animals, dance around together and sing love songs between them (in English no less)" just like in the Bambi Movie, OR those who are politically motivated to disenguously take advantage of joining those who fight against the Hated America, i.e. to blame all evil in the World on the present Administration, in order to gain control again for their own selfish reasons) are against developing our Domestic Energy Industry. A "Scorched Earth Policy" similar to Juvenile Delinquents who's motto is, "If you can't steal, wreck it".
If we don't intelligently develop our own Domestic Energy Sources to get off of sending Billions of American Dollars and Jobs overseas, then all the US Citizen-American Haters will soon find out that life under a Chinese Dictatorship might become inevitable and not be all that good afterall. "You never really know what you've got, until it is gone"!
Oh, I left out one sincere group: "Those who want to believe, at all costs, that the old way is the only good way".
They need to use the same entreprenuerial spirit that put them in their past positions as the "financial overlords" in these small communities to begin with and quit fighting Progress. Learn to live with it and embrace it for the benefit of future generations.
And last but not least, until one truly investigates the overwhelming concensus of the "World-Wide Scientific Community" who have labeled the theory of "Human Caused Global Warming" as "the biggest hoax every perpetrated on Mankind", can one start thinking intelligently, rather than letting their "Autonomic Nervous System (Unreasoned Emotion) Fight/Flight Syndrome" guide their decisions.
The "Scorched Earth Strategies" used by the opposing Party have worked and now they have all the power. But it will be a "Cold Day in Hell" before I will support the same thuggish mentality against our duly elected American President "Barack Obama" despite of what his Party did to our last duly elected American President.
Its time for cooler and more thoughtful Heads to prevail or we will only prolong our difficulties.
Steve Bigelow
As with any project there are rules to be followed - at Prudhoe, Alaska, no personal cars, no families, housing is primative, no beer cans, no drugs and with any of the above, you are fired! Workers work 2 weeks then go home for 2 weeks using the same housing as the 5000 who were there the past two weeks. Governoe Palin has a good head on her shoulders and her state at heart. Comeon - get it together. We need the oil, gas and wind turbines all turning at full speed and stop relying on other countries - Wake up America
The Boom Hurts the Economy!
I am seeing this same thing happeningin Williston, ND; the oil capitol of the upper midwest. At town of 13,000 people has exploded with oil field workers causing massive inflation of home prices, gas, food, and other goods. Because the oil jobs pay so well the other businesses cannot compete with the wages and are forced to raise their salaries which forces the goods and services prices up. Restaraunts now close at 8 PM instead of staying open 24 hours like before. Hotels can't find enough staff to clean and maintain their facilities. Everyone who wants a job has one or even two! There is a huge demand for more hotels, stores and restaraunts but nobody wants to build for fear of not being able to find employees and for fear of the eventual oil bust that will inevitably come like it did in 1983. Every single business in town has a sign in the window "Help Wanted." The locals who have lived in Williston forever are not enjoying the prosperity because it is costing them more at the cash register for everything they buy, polluting their streets and air, crowding their schools and stressing all of the government employees in the police department, fire department, school system and social programs offices. No, the boom is not good for those who live in it.
Lots of downsides!!! This is not flatlands, farming area that you find in the Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, and Eastern Colorado oilfields. A well pad & its roads is not just put in and then farmed around. This a mountain area with lots more natural resources than just gas and everytime a road is put in to lead to a well or lead up a mountain, more people are ready to travel up that mountain. Most of these workers are here for the dollar but they leave their empty Bud cans or bottles, their used up camper shell, and tons of other waste and trash that they don't want to pick up. The new roads allow for easier access to our quiet areas that residents have always used for hunting and fishing and who have picked up after themselves. The new influx of workers don't care about Colorado or what they leave behind for the rest of us to pick up.
Then there is the matter of air quality, water quality and the small matter of quality of life for so many long time residents who have stuck it out in good times and bad. Not everyone here works for Encana or Williams or Shell or anyone else paying those huge dollars and providing compensation packages like paying for fuel or housing. So many of us are just trying to keep our heads above the cost of groceries, of fuel, rent, mortgage, etc. We don't make the big bucks that all these news articles talk about.
We have people coming into this small area daily wanting their share of the gold. They don't check the housing or the cost of anything before they arrive. They just show up and want to make the big bucks. We don't have homeless shelters, free food, or services that provide free money to get set up to be able to go to work.
Lots of downsides!!!
