Hours after the Ritter administration filed a last-minute protest against a federal plan to tap vast natural gas reserves under Colorado's Roan Plateau, the governor drew a stinging rebuke from Republicans who have championed the site's development.

"With gas at $4 a gallon, our economy struggling, and tens of thousands of Colorado homes about to have their lights turned off because they can't afford their utility bills, the governor's decision to protest drilling Colorado's largest untapped natural gas reserve is just irresponsible," said Grand Junction Republican Sen. Josh Penry.

"We need leadership and tough choices to get us out of this energy debacle," Penry said.  "(Gov.) Bill Ritter's decision to take his marbles and go back to the Governor's Mansion because the federal government didn't do everything he asked is not leadership."

Penry and several other Senate and House GOP members have been calling on the governor as well as Colorado's congressional Democrats to stop trying to block the U.S. Bureau of Land Management's plan for energy exploration on the Roan. The Bureau's plan has been years in the making, the Republicans point out, and already has incorporated wide-ranging input from Colorado's state government and other stakeholders on environmental and other considerations.

GOP lawmakers say, the governor's continued attempts to block the granting of drilling leases on the Roan beginning next month is a slap at consumers.

“Colorado’s working families were just sent a message that affordable energy and energy independence are not priorities for this governor," said Rep. Cory Gardner,  a Yuma Republican. “Instead of drilling the Roan, the governor seems OK with letting energy costs drill a hole through people’s pocketbooks.”

The plateau, northwest of Rifle, holds as much as 9 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, which the Republicans say will bring badly needed relief to consumers in Colorado and nationwide as energy prices soar. The GOP lawmakers also say the Roan's development will mean a budgetary boon to the state's colleges and universities under a bipartisan bill passed this year, providing higher education in the state a steady source of revenue from the federal mineral leases granted on the Roan and elsewhere.

"Under the funding plan we rolled out, every dollar received from drilling the roan--hundreds of millions of dollars over the coming years--would go to our colleges and universities," Penry said.

The Ritter administration has been drawing fire as well for what Republicans call an all-out assault on Colorado's energy industry, which not only is the state's largest but also is one of the few revenue sources to state government that is surging--and sustaining the state budget.

The administration is pushing a sweeping rewrite of regulations governing oil-and-gas exploration that critics say could cripple and curb some energy exploration in the state. And Ritter has personally endorsed a pending ballot issue that would dramatically raise taxes on oil and gas exploration.

Penry said the price of further balking by the administration could be high. 

"Drilling the Roan Plateau is the right thing to do for energy independence, and it is the right think to do for Colorado's colleges and universities," he said. "If the governor and his no-drill pals at the Sierra Club sue to stop drilling after the administrative protest phase, they will be suing to stop a 30-year gusher of funding for Colorado's colleges."