Rocky Mountain Front and Powder River Basin (Montana)
Threat: Increased Oil and Gas Leasing
 The intersection of mountains and grassland found along Montana’s
Rocky Mountain Front produces some of the very richest wildlife
habitat and best big-game habitat in the nation.
Home to some of the
largest remaining big horn sheep, pronghorn antelope, and elk
populations in the United States, the Front’s exceptional habitat serves
as a key wildlife corridor that is essential to the ecological health of the
region. The Front, world-renowned for its hunting, fishing, and
recreational opportunities, also hosts one of the largest grizzly bear
populations south of Canada and is the only place in the Lower 48 where the endangered
grizzly still roams from the mountains to its historic range on the plains.
Unfortunately, the Rocky Mountain Front and surrounding region have been targeted in
the administration’s unabashed efforts to dramatically increase oil and gas leasing on
Western public lands. One of the areas hardest hit by these policies is the nearby Powder
River Basin, which straddles southeastern Montana and northern Wyoming, just east of
the Rocky Mountain Front. On April 30, 2003, the Bureau of Land Management
approved the drilling of 82,000 new oil and gas wells in the Powder River Basin,
including 66,000 coal bed methane wells. These wells, and the associated infrastructure,
will span more than 12 million acres.
“National attention has focused on Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Equally
however, the Rocky Mountain Front represents a major test of whether the petroleum and
mining industries have the political clout to drill, dig, and build anywhere they want,”
wrote Joel Connelly in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer (10/8/2003).
The Bush Administration energy plan will not work for the Rocky Mountian Front
because it makes the wrong choices. Rather then balancing the needs of conservation,
recreation and resource development, the Bureau of Land Management's plan focuses
almost exclusively on destructive coal bed methane development. The administration’s
energy plans ignore high-tech, energy-efficient solutions in favor of increased oil and gas
development, even in our most wild places. We can’t drill, dig or destroy our way out of
our energy problems.
There is a better way. We must find a balance that restores the traditional multiple use
mandate from Congress to America's public lands and protects places like the Rocky
Mountain Front and Powder River Basin.
Sierra Club Contact:
Tracie Weber, Wyoming: (307) 733-4557
Kathryn Hohman, Montana: (406) 582-8365
Additional Info:
|
