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.

Why The Favors - the interview

Why The Favors on the streets of Denver

Why The Favors likes bicyclists

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.

Jack and Jill Politics talked Tuesday about the money that Exxon is putting into a group called C.O.R.E. These folks are working hard to make gas prices and “Drilling Here, Drilling Now” a poverty issue – while ignoring the reality that more drilling will have no immediate, lasting or substantial effect on gas prices.

Not an insignificant effort and worth noting. Is it having an impact? Quite possibly. Does it speak to the need for conservation and sustainable development communities to build true collaborative relationships with local citizens and environmental justice groups? Certainly. We’d love to hear comments and input about what is going on out there. Good examples, especially.

But, at the end of the day, this is another example of how energy companies can put favors to use.

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.

Tell Congress that you want them to fight for a strong economy based on clean energy, not more drilling to pad the pockets of the oil and gas industry.

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.

The panel will be moderated by Jim Martin , Director of the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. Panelists include…

• Tweeti Blancett, New Mexico rancher
• Wally White, La Plata County Commissioner
• Walt Gasson, Wyoming Wildlife Foundation
• Randy Udall, former Director of Community Office for Resource Efficiency (CORE)

More details, including full panelist bios are available from The Wilderness Society.

Save the info to a calendar.

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.

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…

Let’s look at Rifle, Colorado and Pinedale, Wyoming.

First up, Rifle: Local motels turning into “man camps” … estimated that 80 percent of local hotel room-nights are used by energy workers.

Tourism hurt. Local nfrastructure costs going through the roof because of rapid growth.

Pinedale, Wyoming: Regression analysis (yes, regression) shows correlation between number of oil rigs and crime activity.

Meanwhile, across the Rockies there is no question that the economy was doing very well before drilling.

More to come….

“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?