Summary
The Bush energy plan has opened up some of the West's last best places to oil and gas drilling. The wildlife of Wyoming's Upper Green River Valley will never be the same. Williams shares his experience in a travel to the vice president's home state of Wyoming to witness firsthand the impact of the Bush-Cheney energy policy, which has opened up vast, unspoiled Western lands to oil and gas development.
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Extract
For a Week's Worth of Gas
ON MAY 18, 2001, a day after unveiling an "energy plan" hatched in secret with the energy industry, President Bush signed Executive Order 13212. Fotfowing a nearly identical proposal offerea by the American Gas Association, he directed federal agencies to "expedite their review of permis or take other actions as necessary to accelerate the completion of [energy-related] projects." The Bureau of Land-Management (BLM) hopped to it, fast-tracking gas-drilling permits acroos the Rocky Mountain West and developing an officiali policy to overcome "impediments" to energy development.
The benefits in terms of increased gas production have been modest. The costs in wildlife, fish, livestock, air quality, water quality, and the last best wildland south of Alaska have been horrendous. Yet perhaps because the administration has backed away from its dream of turning the gas and oil industry loose in the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge, environmentalists havener, made a lof of noise-until recently.The land being sacrificed-in Colorado, New Mexico, Wyoming, Montana, and Utah-is just as beautiful as any in Alaska, and no le...See the full content of this document
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