March 29, 2013

Via Email
Bureau of Land Management
Colorado River Valley Field Office
Roan Plateau SEIS Scoping Comments
2300 River Frontage Road
Silt, CO 81652
Attn: Steve Bennett, Field Manager
roanplateau@blm.com


RE: Separation of Upper and Lower Leases and the Lack of Necessity and Basis for SEIS

Dear Mr. Bennett:

Why are they using a wrecking ball when I told them a little touch up paint would be just fine?

This is the question District Court Judge Marcia Krieger must be asking herself as she watches
BLM respond to her ruling on the Roan Plateau a ruling that, in addition to directing the BLM
to provide some additional data in support of its leasing decision, also robustly re-affirmed that
federal law requires the Roan Plateau be leased for oil and gas production.

The above question also speaks to the heart of our concerns. The Judge requested a narrow band
of additional information and data. Rather than indulge demands from environmental plaintiffs
seeking still another round oI delay Ior delay`s sake, the BLM should narrowly supplement its
analysis in the specific areas the Judge requested, and get on about the business of allowing oil
and gas production on the Roan as Judge Krieger said is required under federal law.

The West Slope Colorado Oil & Gas Association is a regional oil and gas trade group advocating
responsible development of oil and gas resources on Colorado's Western Slope. Our membership
represents thousands of industry employees, contractors, vendors and suppliers throughout the
entire natural gas and oil supply chain. Our organization is proud of the community partnerships
we build and maintain in the communities where we live and work and raise our families.
Please accept these comments regarding the BLM`s decision to initiate scoping on the Roan
Plateau supplemental environmental impact statement as noticed in the Federal Register earlier
this year. We appreciate your consideration of these comments, and the service you provide to
our region, Colorado, and the public on whose behalf you manage public lands and resources
under your care.

General Comments

The latest push for a NEPA 'redo on the Roan Plateau is clearly an over-reaction on the part of
BLM. However, this overreaction does provide a clear opportunity to right a previous wrong.

BLM should separate analysis of natural gas leases located on top of the plateau from those
located in the valley below (~valley leases). The valley leases have little in common with
those on top and should not be subjected to the hyper-politicized processes currently
delaying development of leases on top of the plateau.

Separating the valley bottom leases is common sense policy for four primary reasons:

(1) Environmentalists who Iiled suit acknowledged in court Iilings that 'oil and gas
development has covered public and private lands around the base of the Roan Plateau with
well pads, roads, and related inIrastrurure. In this language the plaintiffs acknowledge pre-
existing development at the base is different than the ultimate development that will take
place on the top of the plateau. The existence of wells and infrastructure around the valley
leases also means these lower elevation leases will be drilled cost effectively even in the
current natural gas price environment. Communities have an immediate economic gain if
these leases are released from their prison of politicization.

(2) The so called 'Community Alternative proposed allowing drilling around the base of the
plateau in areas not placed off limits by the BLM.


(3) The valley leases are literally right next to existing, producing wells.

(4) The BLM can easily and quickly integrate the additional drilling activity emissions from the
valley lease development into analysis conducted during the Lower Colorado River Valley
Field office RMP revision.
After separating valley and top leases BLM should reverse the decision to conduct a
redundant environmental impacts statement relative to leases on the top.

BLM`s latest decision to yet again do over the Roan Plateau EIS is a contribution to the decades-
long attempt by environmental plaintiffs to thwart the requirements of President Bill Clinton`s
Transfer Act the federal mandate requiring managed energy leasing of the Roan Plateau.

The language in the federal law could not, quite simply, be more clear:

Beginning on November 18, 1997, or as soon thereafter as practicable, the Secretary of the
Interior shall enter into leases with one or more private entities for the purpose of exploration for,
and development and production oI, petroleum. located on or in public domain lands in NOSR
1 and NOSR 3}.
The latest announced reworking of the EIS that is the focus of this scoping process is an
egregious example of wasted resources, since this latest round of full-blown NEPA analysis,
layered on top of more than a decade of existing analysis, is simply not required. The District
Court`s 2012 decision on the Roan Plateau didn`t require or even encourage yet another
redundant study. In fact, just the opposite is true. Judge Marcia Krieger simply noted BLM had a
few minor adjustments to its otherwise voluminous review and analysis before more drilling and
job creation in Western Colorado could move forward.

Moreover, the Judge was exceedingly clear on one point - federal law requires the Roan
Plateau be leased and produced. You wouldn`t know it from much of the media coverage
of the decision, but the Judge focused sharp criticism at the environmental plaintiffs,
sweeping aside the overwhelming majority of their claims, at one point even calling their
frivolous arguments ~non-sequitur.

Rather than efficiently addressing the judges minor concerns with an Environmental Analysis,
the BLM seems to have been drawn in by another environmentalist non-sequitur namely, that
the judge`s request for a relatively small amount of information necessitates another multi-year,
multi-million dollar paper pushing exercise in the form of a full-blown EIS. Any plain reading
oI the judge`s decision quickly shows no such requirement or expectation. Unless its motivation
is anything other than delay Ior delay`s sake, the BLM should simply fix what the court asked
the agency to address. Indeed, most of the rifle-shot information the judge requested additional
air quality data, and documentation about why the environmentalist`s no-drill alternative is
infeasible already exists.

In point of fact, more delay and new reams of analysis will not change certain basic realities:
Western Colorado needs jobs and energy production from the Roan. The previous EIS approved
by the Bureau of Land Management is one of the most environmentally-stringent plans approved
in the history of public lands energy exploration, and no amount of additional concession,
modification or restriction will ever satisfy the demands of drilling opponents.

A full-blown redo will consume millions more in tax dollars in an era of federal budget deficits
and debt. Ironically, this action targets one of the very industries making hugely important
revenue contributions to what`s leIt oI Congress` discretionary spending. The action also holds
hostage billions in capital investment that would otherwise flow into Western Colorado business
communities were drilling to advance. As if holding jobs and economic recovery over the heads
of Western Colorado communities weren`t enough, a NEPA 'restart also now places local
municipalities and counties at risk for having to repay the $54 million received from the Federal
Mineral Lease Bonus Payments from the Roan Plateau lease sale in 2008. Federal, state and local
governments have already spent these monies and the dollars will have to be refunded if
environmental groups are successful in blocking development as part of this proposed EIS.
Now, in an era of double digit Western Slope unemployment, communities may face paying
these monies back in light oI BLM`s decision to consider a Iull range oI alternatives. Every
dollar paid back to energy companies is one less dollar going to parks, sidewalks, bridges and
roads.

A final point, by way of general summary, is important at the outset. It is the height of Orwellian
spin for the environmentalist plan to be described as the 'citizens alternative, when nothing
could be farther from the truth. The citizens of the Western Slope, as represented by local
governments in counties like Garfield, Mesa and Rio Blanco Counties, all support oil and gas
development on the Roan Plateau. Scores of political, business and community leaders up and
down the Western Slope have also expressed the same. While organizations like 'Rock the
Earth do indeed have the right to frivolously oppose domestic energy production whenever and
wherever they can, they are most certainly not the feel-good, bottom-up 'citizens group they
purport to be. In truth, the bulk of the plaintiffs seeking to block or delay drilling are
organizations funded by big-dollar, East Coast environmentalists. If the BLM does in fact
review the environmentalist proposal, this nomenclature would be a more apt descriptor than
'citizens.

This year marks the 100 year anniversary oI the Roan Plateau`s congressional designation as a
national energy reserve. Western Colorado communities, since then, have faced decades of lost
revenues due to not having access to energy development on the Roan Plateau. If the BLM
decides to move forward with another redundant EIS, Western Colorado`s business community
can lament yet another lost decade when accounting for analysis and the inevitable
administrative and legal appeals that will follow.

Specific Comments

Valid & Existing Rights

WSCOGA member companies currently hold valid existing lease rights to federal mineral estate
within the Roan Plateau planning area. Agency estimates show using today`s technically
recoverable reserves, the area contains up to 7 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. With over $114
million dollars invested, the BLM has currently stranded said investment capital so our
organization has a tremendous interest in seeing the Bureau of Land Management issue the
leases in question.

The BLM`s decision to initiate a supplemental Environmental Impact Statement to consider a
'whole range of alternatives rather than simply addressing those narrow items remanded by the
court is unnecessary analysis indirectly impugning the lease rights of our member companies.

Lease rights were garnered by our companies who paid $144 million the largest lease sale in
Colorado`s history. These monies were paid to and spent by Federal, state and local
governments. If the Department of Interior and BLM were serious about addressing only the
court`s clearly stated concerns, the agency would have simply issued a notice of intent for a
curative Environmental Assessment ('EA). No rational basis exists for expending tax payer
resources to redo a full EIS, at a cost to taxpayers in the millions, when the courts only required a
narrow curative approach.

Seeing no basis for this scoping action noticed by BLM to initiate a new supplemental EIS, the
only assumption to be made is that the decision is part of a strategy meant to further delay and
further encumber our member companies with financial burdens so as to reduce likelihood of the
area leases being developed. This assumption is reinforced by the fact that the District Court
upheld nearly all of the RMP save for three narrow issues including additional air quality
analysis. Since the 2008 Roan Plateau lease sale, the agency has already conducted additional air
analysis; therefore, the matter concerning air quality can be easily and readily communicated to
the courts to remedy their concerns.

So called ~Community Alternative

The courts also noted the agency failed to adequately consider the self-proclaimed 'Community
Alternative submitted by environmental interest groups. The premise of this plan was that the
Roan Plateau could be developed using directional drilling from the sides and base of the
plateau. The technical and price constraints rendering this approach infeasible in 2002 have not
changed and will not change throughout the life of the 20 year RMP Amendment. Therefore it`s
difficult to contemplate what additional analysis of this proposal would occur under a full
environmental impact statement. Again, Judge Krieger largely upheld the RMP`s interpretation
and implementation oI President Clinton`s TransIer Act.

Citizen`s Alternative can`t and shouldn`t be fully considered because its very
premise is a violation of the lease holder`s rights.

Alternatives such as the so called 'Citizens Alternative can be addressed though existing data in
the administrative record showing the implementation is unquestionably technically infeasible;
and therefore, a functional taking of lease holder rights. Moreover, existing case law prohibits
the BLM from issuing no surface occupancy stipulations on leases that did not contain such
provisions during the time of issuance. The so called 'Citizens Alternative functionally bans
lease development through no surface occupancy requirements. Consequently, the alternative
isn`t viable.

During the planning process for the RMP, BLM considered a reasonable range of alternatives
and appropriately eliminated those alternatives that were either duplicative of alternatives being
analyzed; or, that did not comply with the BLM`s interpretation oI the TransIer Act. There are
numerous existing documents in the RMP administrative record from a variety of sources,
including the BLM, Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC), and industry,
that detail why directional drilling from the base of the Plateau is, and for the long-term
foreseeable future will be, technologically and economically infeasible.

For remand purposes, BLM can easily document why requiring development from the base of
the plateau could adversely impact other resources present in the area including mule deer and
other big game species. Additionally, the BLM can easily document the fact that significant
portions oI the lands surrounding the 'top oI the plateau are privately owned and that BLM does
not have the authority to compel private citizens to allow development of federal lands from
those private lands, given limits to access to the federal surIace would be oI BLM`s own
arbitrary making.

Importantly, the Court did not require BLM to analyze in detail the impacts of the 'Community
Alternative; it merely indicated the agency must explain why such an alternative was not
analyzed in detail. On remand, because the Community Alternative is not a technically or
economically feasible alternative and does not meet the purpose and need of the EIS (based on
the Transfer Act), BLM must simply explain and document why development of the resources
underlying the top of the Roan Plateau is infeasible from the base. This approach on remand is
entirely consistent with long established NEPA precedent regarding agency analysis of
alternatives that are not technically and economically feasible. Therefore, separate analysis of
the 'Community Alternative is not required under NEPA. Nor would it be a reasonable
alternative because BLM cannot unilaterally and retroactively modify existing lease terms.

Also, the vast majority oI elements Irom the 'Community Alternative were assessed during the
BLM`s review oI Alternative F which would have restricted drilling and limited development
to the base of the plateau. The result of the analysis highlighted above was a determination that
such action was inconsistent with Congress` express intent to authorize natural gas leasing and
development on the Upper Plateau a provision upheld by the District Court. The Roan Plateau
EIS considered a broad range of alternatives and contains sufficient information to fully
contemplate the banning of drilling on the Upper Plateau.

BL M is not requi red to analyze the Community Alternative as a separate alternative
because it is largely a political rhetorical device and not a viable and serious alternative.

Federal agencies conducting NEPA are not required to analyze in detail alternatives that require
drilling from the base of the plateau. Considering alternatives that 'it [The BLM] has in good
Iaith rejected as too remote, speculative . . . impractical or ineIIective. Airport Neighbors
Alliance, Inc. v. U.S., 90 F.3d 426, 432 (10th Cir. 1996) (upholding an agency`s rejection oI
alternatives because of the costs and environmental complications associated with the
alternatives); City of Aurora v. Hunt, 749 F.2d 1457, 1467 (10th Cir. 1984) (upholding agency`s
rejection of alternative when agency considered alternative infeasible due to difficult terrain,
high-rise complexes, and dense development); see also Holy Cross Wilderness Fund v. Madigan,
960 F.2d 1515, 1528 (10th Cir. 1992) (upholding agency`s rejection oI alternative on grounds
that agency considered it too speculative and uncertain).

So the fact remains, the court did not mandate additional or new analysis, but the agency has
chosen to yet again re-study the Roan Plateau EIS. Re-opening the entire RMP process is
antithetical to the District Court`s decision that the agency complied with NEPA save for two
discrete items.

The 'Community Alternative is grossly speculative, and technically and economically
infeasible. Geology underlying the Naval Oil Shale Reserve severely limits directional drilling.

As previously noted, the BLM is going well beyond the courts narrow remand order. Therefore
by expanding the analysis unnecessarily, WSCOGA believes the agency is dangerously close to
impugning lease rights using the NEPA processes politically and punitively instead of properly.

The Colorado River Valley Cumulative Air Impact Analysis of the Same Air shed is
sufficient in addressing the court`s remand.

In the District Court`s decision related to air issues, the court remand was clearly a directive to
better explain what analysis had occurred and was not a requirement that the BLM enter into new
quantitative analysis. To this end, the BLM does not need to engage in creating new air
modeling. Existing data is available and a new air quality analyses was conducted for the
Colorado River Valley RMP that is applicable to the Roan Plateau Airshed.

Conclusion

BLM does not need to begin a new planning process to amend the Roan Plateau RMP in order to
comply with the Court`s decision related to the Roan Plateau. BLM can instead supplement the
existing Roan EIS to specifically address the issues identified by the District Court. The Court
remanded the RMP on discrete issues that only require Iurther explanation oI BLM`s decision-
making, as well as further explanation and potential additional air quality analysis. This can be
easily and expeditiously completed without a prolonged EIS process that completely re-opens the
RMP process.

BLM already has all of the documentation in the administrative record to provide a sufficient
explanation regarding the Community Alternative. Further, BLM has recently completed air
quality modeling and analysis for the Colorado River Valley, Grand Junction, and White River
Field Offices, which provide additional detailed air analysis for the Roan Plateau RMP. By
beginning this RMPA BLM is potentially setting aside the years of analysis and hard work that
went into creating the Roan Plateau RMP.

Any RMP supplement or amendment process must respect our members` valid existing lease
rights. BLM is legally constrained from taking any action that would devalue their leases or
would otherwise seek to unilaterally and retroactively amend their lease terms or development
rights. These actions would constitute a breach of the lease contract by BLM, affording our
member companies the right to restitution and damages.

Thank you for your time and consideration. WSCOGA looks forward to continuing to work
cooperatively and collaboratively with the BLM and other stakeholders during the next stages of
this process.

Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions or would like additional
information.




Best,


David Ludlam
Executive Director
West Slope Colorado Oil & Gas Association

CC:

Matt McKeown, Regional Solicitor for the Department of the Interior
Helen Hankins, Colorado BLM State Director
Honorable Senator Mark Udall
Honorable Senator Michael Bennett
Honorable Representative Scott Tipton
Honorable Colorado Senator Steve King
Honorable Colorado Senator Gayle Schwartz
Honorable Colorado Representative Bob Rankin
Honorable Colorado Representative Randy Baumgardner
Honorable Representative Ray Scott
Honorable Representative Jared Wright
Garfield County Board of Commissioners
Mesa County Board of Commissioners
Rio Blanco County Board of Commissioners
Grand Junction City Council
Rifle City Council
North West Resource Advisory Council
Associated Governments of Northwest Colorado
Club 20
Grand Valley Area Chamber of Commerce
Rifle Chamber of Commerce
Fruita Chamber of Commerce
Meeker Chamber of Commerce