Regarding Paul Larmer’s editorial “Storing fat
from the feeding frenzy” (HCN, 11/28/05: Storing fat from the
feeding frenzy): Wyoming may be doing a better job of managing oil
and gas revenues; however, that revenue hardly compensates for the
destruction of frenzied and uncontrolled development. Qwest, EnCana
and coalbed methane drillers have the Bureau of Logging and Mining
assisting them and state regulators on the run. Severance and
royalty payments remind me of the minuscule payments made to Native
Americans for their lands.
Like them, what do we do after
selling our birthright for a bowl of porridge? Ten-acre spacing of
infill drilling leaves no surface values behind. So we may be
better at managing this pittance; we are more dependent on it and
will be left with destruction long after the dollars disappear.
Bob Laybourn
Cheyenne,
Wyoming
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline After dollars are spent, destruction remains.
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