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Thursday, August 12, 2004

Fed Panel Weighs in on N.M. Drilling

By Tania Soussan
Journal Staff Writer
    A White House energy task force weighed in on behalf of El Paso Corp. and proposed natural gas development in northern New Mexico's prized Valle Vidal, but the Forest Service says it has not speeded up its review as a result.
    Houston-based El Paso Corp. asked the Carson National Forest in 2002 to open almost half of the 100,000 acres of mountain peaks, streams and meadows— home to the state's largest elk herd— to oil and gas leasing.
    At the time, the Forest Service said it would have neither the staff nor the money to start studying potential energy development in the Valle Vidal until 2005.
    Then, last summer, El Paso executives met with the White House Task Force on Energy Project Streamlining, a Bush administration project created in 2001 to work with federal agencies on expediting energy-related permits.
    "In this environment, we need new natural gas supplies more than ever," El Paso's former government affairs director wrote to task force director Robert W. Middleton after the late June 2003 meeting. "We believe the Valle Vidal Unit could be a vital new source of such supply. Consequently, we would very much appreciate anything you could do to help move this process forward in a timely manner."
    Within a few weeks, on July 24, 2003, Middleton wrote to Forest Service officials, reminding them of their earlier "lengthy timeline for the project" and asking for an "expedited" response with a status report, including a proposed schedule and list of unresolved issues.
    "This is a very clear call from the White House Task Force on Energy Project Streamlining to the Forest Service to move along with this project," said Erik Schlenker-Goodrich, an attorney with the Taos-based Western Environmental Law Center.
    Forest Service officials talked several times with the task force about ways to hasten the process, but said the task force involvement was above-board and ultimately did not lead to a change in the agency's schedule.
    "There was no undue pressure to speed up," said H. Wayne Thornton, Southwest region director of lands and minerals for the Forest Service. "There were merely questions about the availability of funding and the availability of person power."
    The Carson National Forest still intends to begin its environmental analysis of possible oil and gas leasing in 2005, the same schedule proposed before the White House task force got involved, said Carson Supervisor Martin D. Chavez Jr.
    Schlenker-Goodrich said that although the formal environmental analysis needed for oil and gas leasing has not started, the Forest Service is laying the groundwork to move forward.
    "Internally, within the Forest Service, the project has been going on for months," he said.
    New Mexico Energy Secretary Joanna Prukop pointed to a report released by the Forest Service last week as evidence the agency is moving more quickly on a decision about oil and gas leasing.
    That report, called a "Reasonable Foreseeable Development Scenario," showed significant potential for natural gas production from coal bed methane reserves below the Valle Vidal.
    "The appearance to me is certainly that the Forest Service was going about its business as usual ... and then all of a sudden, their activity speeded up," she said.
    Chavez, the forest supervisor overseeing the Valle Vidal, said the development scenario report was not done any faster than planned.
    The prospect of natural gas development in the Valle Vidal has drawn opposition from Gov. Bill Richardson, other state leaders and a broad coalition of local sportsmen, environmental groups and businesses.
    Allan Lackey, a Raton businessman and former Valle Vidal outfitter, said other uses of the forest land and the voices of local people are being ignored.
    "It's been a pattern that the Bush administration has established all across the West to expand oil and gas drilling," said Lackey, a Republican. "It's an all-out raid on our public resource."
    El Paso Corp. was hoping the White House task force could help it speed up a decision on whether the Valle Vidal could be opened to oil and gas leasing.
    "We were just trying to go through the proper channels to determine if it was a safe, efficient place to develop," said company spokeswoman Kim Wallace. "That task force was set up for that process."
    The company has a strong interest in seeing the Valle Vidal opened for leasing, but would decide whether to bid on a lease only after it sees what drilling conditions the Forest Service would set, Wallace said.
    There is no guarantee El Paso would win a bid, Thornton added.