2ND ANNUAL STATE OF THE ROCKIES
Westerners urged to take charge, chart region’s course
By BILL McKEOWN THE GAZETTE
Westerners are in a position to break the quasi-colonial hold the federal government has had on the Rocky Mountain region since the arrival of white settlers. That was the collective message from speakers appearing last week at Colorado College’s second annual State of the Rockies conference. The speakers — economists, politicians and historians — had differing opinions on the degree and implications of federal intervention in the Rockies. But with 46 percent of the land in the eight-state region owned by the federal government, most agreed the region’s politics, conflicts and economies have been shaped by forces largely outside the control of Westerners. It no longer has to be that way, many suggested. New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson said there are better, smarter ways to harness the energy resources of the Rockies than simply to drill more gas and oil wells, often in pristine areas. He said the explosion in drilling leases on federal and private land — along with the realization that subsurface rights trump those of surface rights — is starting to create alliances among hunters, ranchers and conservationists. He said a plan created in 2004 by the Western Governors’ Association recognizes the need for sensible harvesting of oil and gas in the West. The plan also calls for aggressively using renewable energy, doubling automobile fuel efficiency standards, creating incentives for hybrid-fuel vehicles and mandating the use of cleaner technologies in coal-fired power plants. Richardson said the pressure to exploit the West’s resources also could be eased by imposing energy-efficient building codes, requiring higher-efficiency appliances; improving the region’s electrical transmission lines and creating tax incentives and credits for entrepreneurs to develop renewable energy sources, such as wind. “It is us in the trenches who can make a difference,” Richardson said. “I believe we can develop an energy policy at least in our region to show the way for the rest of the nation.” Well-known environmentalist Amory Lovins, founder of the Snowmass-based Rocky Mountain Institute, said the West’s natural gas reserves could be more efficiently used to create hydrogen fuel to power the lighter, stronger composite cars and trucks he believes could allow America to wean itself completely off foreign oil in the next few decades. Economist Terry Anderson, director of the Montana-based nonprofit Property and Environment Research Center, said Westerners’ influence of market forces could resolve many of the disputes that have arisen over federal grazing land, water rights and wildlife. For example, he said, Westerners should seek to change laws that restrict transferring property from one use to another. That would allow environmental organizations to purchase grazing rights and water rights from willing sellers. And it would accomplish the environmentalists’ goals of reducing environmental damage from cattle grazing and keeping more water in rivers for fish and recreation, without sparking divisive battles with government bureaucracies and other resource users. Attorney Phillip Kannan, a lecturer at CC, said federal law has long facilitated the development of mining, logging and ranching in the West at the expense of the environment. In addition, he said, the cost was borne by taxpayers and residents, not by those extracting the West’s riches. Even federal laws enacted from 1969 to 1980 that led to improvements in the environment nationwide had limited effects in the Rockies, he said. That’s because the laws don’t take into account the nature of pollutants — or the polluters — in the West, Kannan said. The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, for example, is intended to force polluters to clean up hazardous waste. But Kannan said the most toxic waste in the West has been generated by mining operations, and most of those companies have long been out of business. Even the comprehensive Clean Water Act fails the West, he said, because irrigation waters returned to streams and rivers are not considered “point source” pollution and therefore don’t need a discharge permit. But he said those irrigation waters are often full of chemicals from agricultural fertilizers. Kannan and the other speakers found hope that the Rocky Mountain region might effect changes in federal law and policies simply because of the transformation of the West’s demographics and economy over the past few decades. Today, Kannan said, a mountainside is often more valuable as a ski slope than a source of timber. He said simple self-interest could fuel changes in law to protect an “amenity-based” environment that is now often the bread-and-butter of Western communities. “There is an interesting possibility that new law will develop to promote the new economy,” he said. “Creative solutions are possible.” CONTACT THE WRITER: 636-0197 or mckeown@gazette.com