BuzzH
Well-known member
I cant tell you how many times I've heard, "I cant make a difference" or "what you think wont matter" Oh yeah? Someone forgot to tell these guys that....
Montanans carry drilling debate from Front to Washington
By EVE CHEN
For the Tribune
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tribune photo by Eve Chen
From left to right, Rocky Mountain Front residents Chuck Blixrud, Karl Rappold and Hugo Johnson visit Capitol Hill to lobby against drilling.
WASHINGTON -- Dressed in cowboy hats, boots and belt buckles, four Montana environmental activists stood out from this week's Capitol Hill crowds.
Rocky Mountain Front residents Candi Zion, Karl Rappold, Hugo Johnson and Chuck Blixrud came to Washington to put faces on their cause: no gas and oil drilling in their back yards.
"One of the reasons we were out here was to build a dialogue with the U.S. Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management and the congressional delegation," said Blixrud, an outfitter and rancher in Choteau. Another goal was to say they want the "Rocky Mountain Front to stay the same as it's always been."
The Rocky Mountain Front stretches from Rogers Pass up to the Canadian border, according to Greg Albright, a Billings-based spokesman for the Bureau of Land Management.
The Montana Wilderness Association calls it home to "the largest herd of bighorn sheep in the lower 48 states, the country's healthiest population of grizzly bears and an elk herd second in size only to Yellowstone."
The portion of the Front that hits closest to home for Hugo Johnson, an outfitter from St. Mary, is the Badger-Two Medicine area between Glacier National Park and the Blackfeet Reservation.
"My wife is a Blackfeet Indian," Johnson said. "(We) have a great grandson now, and I would like to have them see (Badger-Two Medicine) as his ancestors did -- without oil rigs and ATVs."
The Montana Wilderness Association claims that a controversial energy bill floating through the Senate now would make "oil and gas development 'the dominant use of public lands in the West,' including the Rocky Mountain Front."
Critics in the capital suggest the Renewable Energy Investment Act of 2003 may not have enough support to pass.
"Everyone on both sides realizes this bill is not going to work," said Sierra Club Public Lands Advocate Dan Lavery of Washington, D.C. "But never say never."
He said one way the bill's sponsors may try to pass pro-drilling measures might be to dissect the bill and attach pieces of it to other legislation, a common practice in Congress.
Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont., is sympathetic to both sides of the drilling argument. He welcomed input from the Rocky Mountain Front residents in Washington this week.
"They're in the business of protecting that Front up there and we are too," Burns said. "Putting a moratorium on it, in my opinion, doesn't get us where we want to go. There are (drilling) leases up there now, and I have no problem with them if they comply with the laws of Clean Water and Clean Air and the Endangered Species Act. Who knows? We may need that fuel one day."
Burns has supported reserving access to the land for drilling in case of a national emergency.
Some Montanans think there is already a need for local oil and gas drilling.
"We need to be less reliant on foreign oil and gas," said Willie Duffield of Baker who is executive director of the Montana Association of Oil, Gas and Coal Counties. "There's a shortage. Montana's got an abundance of natural resources, oil and gas. It brings in revenue to the state and schools. I think it'll benefit those counties, and it won't ruin the looks of the Rocky Mountain Front."
Karl Rappold, a Dupuyer rancher whose family has raised cattle on the Front for 122 years, doesn't think there is any reason to drill there. "If we're down to the point where we need that little bit (of fuel), it's time we found a new source of energy. We're in trouble if we have to go down to the last little place to get it."
He argued that the very process of drilling the land would damage it beyond repair. "The land is very fragile where the plains meet the Rocky Mountains," Rappold said. "The topsoil is so thin. It's not like Wyoming or some place where you can come in and plow the ground and reseed it."
Duffield disagreed. "We know (drilling) can be done responsibly and we need to open those resources," he said, adding that with today's technology "it makes small footprints. You'd hardly know they were there when they're done."
Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., has pushed to freeze all drilling along the Front. He also met with the Front representatives.
"Max believes that oil and gas drilling in the Rocky Mountain Front just don't mix," said Barrett Kaiser, a spokesman for Baucus. "It's a special place to an awful lot of Montanans, and Max is going to fight tooth and nail to keep it as it is."
After visiting Washington and witnessing the way government works, the Montana Wilderness Association's Rocky Mountain Front community organizer, Candi Zion, said she realized this is a "process that is going to take some time."
Eve Chen is a reporter for Medill News Service.
Montanans carry drilling debate from Front to Washington
By EVE CHEN
For the Tribune
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tribune photo by Eve Chen
From left to right, Rocky Mountain Front residents Chuck Blixrud, Karl Rappold and Hugo Johnson visit Capitol Hill to lobby against drilling.
WASHINGTON -- Dressed in cowboy hats, boots and belt buckles, four Montana environmental activists stood out from this week's Capitol Hill crowds.
Rocky Mountain Front residents Candi Zion, Karl Rappold, Hugo Johnson and Chuck Blixrud came to Washington to put faces on their cause: no gas and oil drilling in their back yards.
"One of the reasons we were out here was to build a dialogue with the U.S. Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management and the congressional delegation," said Blixrud, an outfitter and rancher in Choteau. Another goal was to say they want the "Rocky Mountain Front to stay the same as it's always been."
The Rocky Mountain Front stretches from Rogers Pass up to the Canadian border, according to Greg Albright, a Billings-based spokesman for the Bureau of Land Management.
The Montana Wilderness Association calls it home to "the largest herd of bighorn sheep in the lower 48 states, the country's healthiest population of grizzly bears and an elk herd second in size only to Yellowstone."
The portion of the Front that hits closest to home for Hugo Johnson, an outfitter from St. Mary, is the Badger-Two Medicine area between Glacier National Park and the Blackfeet Reservation.
"My wife is a Blackfeet Indian," Johnson said. "(We) have a great grandson now, and I would like to have them see (Badger-Two Medicine) as his ancestors did -- without oil rigs and ATVs."
The Montana Wilderness Association claims that a controversial energy bill floating through the Senate now would make "oil and gas development 'the dominant use of public lands in the West,' including the Rocky Mountain Front."
Critics in the capital suggest the Renewable Energy Investment Act of 2003 may not have enough support to pass.
"Everyone on both sides realizes this bill is not going to work," said Sierra Club Public Lands Advocate Dan Lavery of Washington, D.C. "But never say never."
He said one way the bill's sponsors may try to pass pro-drilling measures might be to dissect the bill and attach pieces of it to other legislation, a common practice in Congress.
Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont., is sympathetic to both sides of the drilling argument. He welcomed input from the Rocky Mountain Front residents in Washington this week.
"They're in the business of protecting that Front up there and we are too," Burns said. "Putting a moratorium on it, in my opinion, doesn't get us where we want to go. There are (drilling) leases up there now, and I have no problem with them if they comply with the laws of Clean Water and Clean Air and the Endangered Species Act. Who knows? We may need that fuel one day."
Burns has supported reserving access to the land for drilling in case of a national emergency.
Some Montanans think there is already a need for local oil and gas drilling.
"We need to be less reliant on foreign oil and gas," said Willie Duffield of Baker who is executive director of the Montana Association of Oil, Gas and Coal Counties. "There's a shortage. Montana's got an abundance of natural resources, oil and gas. It brings in revenue to the state and schools. I think it'll benefit those counties, and it won't ruin the looks of the Rocky Mountain Front."
Karl Rappold, a Dupuyer rancher whose family has raised cattle on the Front for 122 years, doesn't think there is any reason to drill there. "If we're down to the point where we need that little bit (of fuel), it's time we found a new source of energy. We're in trouble if we have to go down to the last little place to get it."
He argued that the very process of drilling the land would damage it beyond repair. "The land is very fragile where the plains meet the Rocky Mountains," Rappold said. "The topsoil is so thin. It's not like Wyoming or some place where you can come in and plow the ground and reseed it."
Duffield disagreed. "We know (drilling) can be done responsibly and we need to open those resources," he said, adding that with today's technology "it makes small footprints. You'd hardly know they were there when they're done."
Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., has pushed to freeze all drilling along the Front. He also met with the Front representatives.
"Max believes that oil and gas drilling in the Rocky Mountain Front just don't mix," said Barrett Kaiser, a spokesman for Baucus. "It's a special place to an awful lot of Montanans, and Max is going to fight tooth and nail to keep it as it is."
After visiting Washington and witnessing the way government works, the Montana Wilderness Association's Rocky Mountain Front community organizer, Candi Zion, said she realized this is a "process that is going to take some time."
Eve Chen is a reporter for Medill News Service.
