The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Pinedale Field Office (PFO) is seeking public comment on the proposed Anticline Electrification Phase I project!  Scoping comments due February 6, 2012.

This project is currently  being "scoped" by the BLM (i.e. BLM is asking for all relevant information and concerns that will then be analyzed in a simple Environmental Assessment, rather than a more extensive Environmental Impact Statement.

The proposed power lines would provide electrical power to eight oil and gas facilities owned by Shell, Ultra, Plains and Newfield, but are proposed to cross important and relatively intact areas, potentially impacting huge swaths of sage-grouse nesting and other wildlife habitats. 

• The BLM may require that power lines be buried.  In fact, BLM awarded Anadarko the 2006 Best Management Practices award for "Distinguished Integration of Environmental Best Management Practices" for burying 25 square miles of power lines in their development areas near Gillette, Wyoming, to reduce conflicts with other important resource values such as raptors, sage-grouse, and visual resources.
• Miles and miles of transmission lines are expected to be proposed in the next gas field as well, the Normally Pressured Lance field proposed by Encana on 141,000 acres.
• Underground solutions for electricity transmission are cheaper than previously thought.  Underground lines are ~4.5-5.7 times more expensive than traditional overhead lines, but far less than 10-20 times the cost that some planners had thought.
• Stringing electrical lines across relatively intact wildlife habitats would set a negative precedent for the entire Upper Green River Basin, potentially impacting migratory corridors for birds, pronghorn, mule deer, and bats, and important winter ranges.
• Power poles are deterrents to sage-grouse for miles around, since they provide predator perches and a visual threat.
• Power lines across this area have the potential to impact airplanes taking off and landing at the Pinedale Airport.
• Underground facilities are not as susceptible to wind, ice damage, and lightning strikes, and interruptions are less frequent.  They may even save money in the long run.
• Overhead power lines will seriously mar the visual esthetics of the desert landscape.  They are about as ugly, industrialized and intrusive as a landscape can get. 

Mail or deliver written comments by Monday, Feb. 6 to the PFO, 1625 W. Pine, P.O. Box 768, Pinedale, WY 82941; or fax to 307-367-5329; or email to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it with “Electrification Phase I” in the subject line.

Oil and Gas Lease Sales: General Information

The next oil and gas lease sale will be held on May 1, 2012.  The sale notice is available here.

Wyoming's Bureau of Land Management holds oil and gas lease auctions (called sales) six times per year.   Leasing is the first step in the process of developing oil and gas, and a winning bidder has the legal right to extract 100% of the oil and gas resource.  Minimum bid is only $2.00 per acre. 

Local residents have the right to know what's happening in their own back yards, but the only way for interested citizens to learn which areas are slated for development is through the BLM's website and complex Geocommunicator, or by going to the BLM office.  We will continue to notify the public here of upcoming lease parcels offered in the Upper Green.

Often the BLM will offer sensitive landscapes for lease: places like the Trapper's Point migration corridor bottleneck, which was offered for lease by the BLM, but withdrawn at the eleventh hour due to Alliance and residents' protests.  BLM has also offered the area around the DeSmet monument in Daniel, site of the first Catholic mass held in the Upper Green, and on private ranch properties where landowners don't own their mineral rights.  These leases too were later withdrawn from the lease sale due to Alliance and residents' protests.   

You have the right to protest a lease sale.  See the list of parcels being offered here.  For each notice, you may retrieve a list of Sublette County parcels only, by using the "find" command and typing in "Sublette." 

In the future, you may file a protest by USPS mail, or by fax.  BLM will not accept email protests.  Faxed protests may be sent to 307-775-6203, and mailed protests may be sent to: Bureau of Land Management / Wyoming State Office / 5353 Yellowstone Rd. / P.O. Box 1828 / Cheyenne, WY 82003-1828.  Our office at 5 E. Magnolia offers use of a fax machine, and there is also one for public use at the Sublette County library and at Office Outlet.

A protest is easy to write, and may be only 1-2 pages.  If you decide to protest, be sure to include the names of the parcels being protested.  Request that these parcels be removed from the lease sale.  State your reasons for protesting, such as the value of the lands involved and your personal knowledge of them. 

Perhaps the parcels have significant historic and cultural value.  Maybe this is a favorite hunting or fishing area for your family.  Maybe you're concerned about air quality or water quality degradation.  Maybe you even own the land on the surface, in a "split estate" situation.  Be as detailed as possible.  This information will help the BLM understand the multiple values of the land involved, besides its potential for more oil and gas drilling.