1109The cost of energy independence in Wyoming

posted by Chris on July 25th, 2007

Wyoming is learning firsthand the cost of energy independence through the recent explosion of natural gas extraction rigs that are in 20 of 23 of the state’s counties. The energy  companies are pouring money into the new rigs, hiring employees and paying taxes allows the local populations to enjoy a higher standard of living as well as enjoy better than average public works projects and higher education funding. Ashley Fantz over at CNN says:

But there’s a trade-off: Wildlife populations are taking a hit.

Populations of the West’s iconic mule deer are down where drilling is prevalent; the sage grouse, a bird which conservationists consider a harbinger of how other wildlife are faring, has seen adult populations plunge near gas rig sites.

If grouse aren’t surviving, biologists say, that means bad news for animals like antelope, bighorn sheep and pygmy rabbits.

She goes on to write:

“The West is the last unexploited frontier for gas reserves in the U.S.,” said Fadel Gheit, an Oppenheimer and Co. senior energy analyst. “Market prices are skyrocketing. We’ve drilled the Gulf of Mexico down to Swiss cheese.”

But Gheit concedes, “It’s not good for the environment, no question.”

It’s not good for the environment! Finally. There is not someone touting the fact that it’s ‘within the law’ (like BP) or anything other than just saying that their operations are hurting the environment. If someone from the energy community would just say “Yes, what we are doing is hurting the environment. We are doing everything we can do MINIMIZE that harm.” Then maybe people would really get the picture.

On a June morning, standing in the middle of one of Wyoming’s largest gas fields, Brian Rutledge, a wildlife biologist and the executive director of the Audubon Society of Wyoming, surveys acres of endless sage brush and rigs in the distance.

“These lands are some of the last vestiges of the American West we have, home to hundreds of species who won’t survive if their habitat is fragmented by rigs,” he said. “Once it’s gone, it’s gone. A boom goes bust eventually.”

“We have to ask ourselves, ‘Is getting cheaper gas now worth the future cost to the land?’ “

A biologist employed by the BLM quit, saying that the organization valued gas production over habitat preservation. Something should be said in that.

The benefits are astounding though, although the state is sparsely populated:

Recently, the state Legislature approved giving $2 billion from gas revenue to public schools over the next two years and taxes on groceries have been eliminated. Last year, an endowment created by gas industry taxes grew to $500 million, enabling every Wyoming high school student with above-average grades to attend college in the state.

But the costs are almost just as great, since they are priceless irreplaceable things:

Recent studies have shown the sage grouse and mule deer are in jeopardy, their habitat hurt by gas drilling, biologists say. Power lines are convenient places for raptors and other grouse predators to perch. Rigs sit on sagebrush, the grouse’s primary food source. And loud activity disrupts the grouse’s mating rituals.

Mule deer are down by 42 percent in areas where drilling is prevalent, according to a 2006 study conducted by independent ecologists and biologists and paid for by gas corporation Questar.

Corporate Responsibility has gone out the window in the past 8 years. The gas companies have been give permission by the Administration to make more fuel at all costs, which is something that I don’t know how things will end up, but the way things look now, we are going to devastate our natural wildlife habitats to a point that makes them almost extinct.