Yesterday, the Faces from the Front panel (background and panelist bios here) convened on the Digg stage at The Big Tent.
AP writer Judith Kohler covered the panel and posted an article appearing in today’s Denver Post and elsewhere. She reports that over 7,000 drilling permits are expected to be issued in Colorado just this year (a seven-fold increase over 1998).
As noted in the article, the energy company response is to use its extra money to buy full page ads in local papers calling for more drilling.
Walt Gasson, director of the Wyoming Wildlife Federation, appeared and talked about the quality of life that is being lost by Wyoming families, noting that perhaps giving up our birthright to prop up a failed energy policy:
In Wyoming, the numbers of mule deer and greater sage grouse have dropped in areas where gas drilling has increased, said Walt Gasson, director of the Wyoming Wildlife Federation.
Gasson said the energy boom threatens what he calls Westerners’ “home places.”
“Every Wyoming family has certain places that are special to them,” Gasson said. “The places that they hunt, they fish, the places they park their campers or put up their tent, the places they take their horses. The places they go to get their boots dirty and get their souls clean.”
Gasson, a former state wildlife biologist, said he believes people in the interior West at some point will realize “that maybe it wasn’t a great idea to sacrifice their birthright for a failed energy policy.”
Look for more follow-up from the panel – including video comments from Walt Gasson and others – here at Why The Favors.