Dear HCN,
The “Backlash” article
(HCN, 9/2/02: Backlash) was one of the best I have read yet
concerning CBM development in the West. I have served as
commissioner on the Colorado oil and Gas Conservation Commission,
La Plata County Oil & Gas technical advisor and consulting
environmental geologist to the gas industry and property owners
(referred to as “surface owners”). So I have been all around the
playing field.
The basic problem you highlight
is the clash of 100-year-old mineral development law, our current
national need for gas as a clean fuel, and the modern dynamic of
rural residential sprawl in the West. New West immigrants’ vision
of God’s Country does not include gas wells. Local governments are
caught between the emotions of constituents, antiquated state laws,
and the desire for local jobs and tax revenue from gas production.
Gas producers want to make money and sometimes do not remember that
everybody lives on the surface of the Earth!
In
Colorado, one change in the law could make surface owners
significantly more empowered in negotiations with gas producers.
Currently, a producer has the ability to post a bond and drill
without executing a surface-damage agreement with a severed surface
owner. Although this does not happen often, it leads to a very
skewed negotiation between the producer and the surface owner with
the threat of bond and drill hanging over their head. The
gas-producing lobby has battled mightily to prevent a change in the
law that requires a surface-use agreement between the parties and
levels the playing field.
Another matter to
consider is the disparity between gas producers in their
willingness to work with the public and mitigate impacts. The
industry is not a uniform entity. Some companies do a very good job
of working with the public and spending money far beyond the
minimal regulatory requirements to mitigate impacts. Other
companies are more like bottom feeders and can cause significant
real or perceptual harm with a bull-headed and low-cost attitude. I
do not know how to legislate common sense and proactive
cooperation. But that is just what the CBM debate really needs on
all sides of the fence.
Mike
Matheson
Durango, Colorad
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Gas debate needs common sense.
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