Grand Junction Daily Sentinel Editorial

As the preceding editorial suggests, short of a highly unlikely act of Congress, gas drilling on the top of the Roan Plateau is all but a fait accompli in the wake of Reps. John Salazar's and Mark Udall's failed efforts last week to force the U.S. Bureau of Land Management into imposing a one-year commercial leasing moratorium on the top of the Roan.

Even U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar's decision last week to place a hold on the Bush administration's nomination of James Caswell to replace Kathlene Clarke as the new director of the BLM in order to give the new Ritter administration 120 days to thoroughly examine the BLM's Roan Plateau Management Plan will not permanently forestall leasing the top of the Roan. (Note to area BLM managers: This should be a no-brainer. You should extend the Ritter administration that simple courtesy.)

Amid all the heated politics surrounding the future of the Roan Plateau, a couple of prominent Western Slope lawmakers last week said they intend to introduce legislation next year to create a multimillion-dollar permanent trust fund from revenues derived from the Roan Plateau mineral leasing revenues and dedicate them to higher education and to help cover the impacts of regional energy development.

Local state Sen. Josh Penry and Rep. Al White, R-Winter Park, are sponsors of the legislation that they estimate could generate as much as $70 million to $80 million annually after the top of the Roan is fully leased. The Penry-White bill presumes that as much as $1 billion in federal mineral leasing revenues could be collected as part of the Roan's development plan, providing a permanent capital pool that could throw off tens of millions in investment revenue annually.

This editorial is by no means an endorsement of legislation that hasn't even been drafted yet. Penry's and White's revenue estimates could be unrealistically high. Moreover, as Rifle Mayor Keith Lambert has noted, the findings of a gubernatorial task force charged with analyzing usage of the state's existing severance taxes and mineral leasing revenues should be taken into consideration in drafting future legislation. But

Penry makes a compelling point when he says, "We should create permanent funds."

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