Why The Favors on the streets of Denver
We’re talking to people on the streets of Denver this week about Why the Favors and the impacts of energy drilling on the land, communities and wildlife.
Check out more photos after the jump. And keep your cameras handy. We may be in your neck of the woods soon.
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.
Rather than passing legislation that deepens our reliance on fossil fuels, Congress must begin supporting real energy solutions that boost the health of all American pocketbooks.
Majora Carter stopped by The Big Tent in Denver to talk about sustainable economic development (on a panel with Robert Kuttner).
With energy development putting big pressure on local communities across the Rocky Mountain west we were happy to grab a couple minutes of Majora’s time to hear about what she is up to and how she thinks sustainable development can become a bigger piece of the future in these communities. More info is available on Majora’s site.
Come hear from diverse western voices – a New Mexico rancher, a local Colorado county commissioner, a Wyoming sportsman, and a West Slope renewable energy expert – about the toll that this administration’s “drill everywhere” policies are having on the people and communities of the West. This panel, moderated by the Director of Colorado’s Public Health and Environment Department, will also talk about the alternative path energy path that we should be taking towards a sustainable future that conserves the land, water and local communities of the West.
The panel will be moderated by Jim Martin , Director of the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. Panelists include…
More details, including full panelist bios are available from The Wilderness Society.
Over the past couple days we have had a few opportunities to hear from the inspiring and amazingly busy Van Jones. Pulled straight from his website this is a bit of what Van Jones is up to:
Van Jones is the founder and president Green For All, based in Oakland, California. The mission is to help build an inclusive, green economy – strong enough to lift millions of people out of poverty. Van is a tireless advocate, championing “green-collar jobs and opportunities” for disadvantaged people. He is committed to creating “green pathways out of poverty,” while greatly expanding the coalition fighting global warming.
Just want to take a moment to shout out the Green Jobs Now project and their organizing around a national day of action on September 27th.
Find out what it is all about here. This is the sort of long-term sustainable thinking needed to help communities rural and urban, particularly in the Rockies, that are being raked over the coals by rapid (and short-lived) gas drilling booms.
Sure, we could drill and drill and drill. The fact still remains that oil and gas in America will keep getting harder to get out of the ground – costing more money and energy in the process. Our bias here is probably fairly clear – we need to be careful about tearing up wild public lands in the name of some sketchy idea of relief.
Energize America has some ideas about what should be next. And there is Boone Pickens’ plan. More on both in the coming days as we continue to report from the Big Tent in Denver.
What are your ideas? What should the next President, next Congress do? What should citizens do (let’s not assume Congress will fix this, eh)?
Pete Morton, Economist at The Wilderness Society
Here with economist from The Wilderness Society talking about gas drilling in the west. Let’s go…
Drilling has boomed in the last eight years. Starting with a Bush vow in 2001 to fight a “huge energy crisis.” (not sure how well that’s gone)
The Bush Administration continues to exaggerate America’s energy potential by citing estimates of technically recoverable oil and natural gas that ignore the economic costs of recovery.
Close to 20,000 new wells drilled on Rockies public lands since the start of the Bush Administration.
Lands in about 35 proposed wilderness areas have been drilled in the past eight years.
New BLM management plans have opened 43 MILLION acres to oil and natural gas drilling.
What has this meant to locals…
An article in yesterday’s New York Times leads with the grand headline: Drilling Boom Revives Hope for Natural Gas. Those of us living and working in the Rockies are well aware that the boom is already well underway – thanks in no small part to years of intimacy between regulators and the energy industry. A forthcoming report from the Interior Department’s own Inspector General’s office talks about how…
“Inappropriate relationships have been part of the culture,” (between industry and federal energy managers)
See yesterday’s Denver Post for details on the report.
Again, the question is why does an industry that damages the environment and public health get breaks?
