As the Bush administration pushes its national energy
plan, The Wilderness Society has published a report that says the
plan’s initiatives are inadequate. The publication, Energy and
Western Wildlands, says drilling for oil in U.S. Forest
Service-regulated roadless areas will satisfy our national
petroleum needs for less than a month, while natural gas reserves
on these lands would meet demand for less than three
months.
The October report also calculates that
oil and gas drilling in 15 national monuments in the West would
yield less than six days’ worth of natural gas and only 15 days’
worth of oil. The study criticizes the Bush administration for
calculating the energy development potential of public lands based
on the total estimated amount of oil and gas, rather than the
amount of oil and gas that would be profitable to
extract.
A second report, Fragmenting Our Lands,
examines the “ecological footprint” of oil and gas drilling. Using
the Upper Green River Basin in Wyoming as a case study, The
Wilderness Society says that, while drilling infrastructure there
covers only 4 percent of the 166-square-mile study area, 97 percent
of the area lies within one-quarter mile of roads, pipelines, waste
pits or drilling pads.
For a copy of the reports,
visit www.wilderness.org/newsroom/report_energy101402.htm and
www.wilderness.org/newsroom/report_fragmenting101402.htm.
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Reports drill Bush energy plan.
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