EL PASO (AP) -- What lies beneath one of the Southwests last pristine grasslands is fueling a feud between conservationists and energy companies.
Many drilling leases applications are on hold while the U.S. Bureau of Land Management considers how, when and where energy companies will be allowed to explore for gas and possibly oil that may lie beneath the region, which has been compared to the petroleum-rich Permian Basin.
Steve Yates, vice-president of HEYCO, said the Orogrande could contain as much as 19 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. "Thats a lot of gas," said Yates, "but that area has never really been explored."
Conservationists and energy companies have criticized the BLMs draft environmental impact statement (EIS) and management plan, first issued in November 2000. Environmentalists caution that the plan doesn't go far enough to reduce industry's impacts on sensitive habitat for plants and wildlife. They say the issue could become a dispute similar to that over oil reserves beneath the Artic National Wildlife Refuge.
"It could come to that," said Stephen Capra of the 2,000 plus members of the New Mexico Wilderness Alliance. "We're not going to sit back and let this area be developed helter-skelter."
"We're trying to protect our grasslands and threatened species while placing few restrictions on when and where they can drill," said Tom Phillips, leader of the BLM team that drafted the EIS.
Adapted from a 3-5-2002 article in the Roswell Daily Record.