Copyright 2000, United Press International
December 18, 2000

The energy industry contends that the nation's growing reliance on natural gas means that some 49 million acres of national forest should not be closed off by the U.S. Forest Service under a proposal that would ban the construction of roads through wilderness areas that hold sizable reserves of gas and oil.

The Forest Service last week announced that the agency's preferred conservation plan for so-called "roadless" wilderness areas was to ban road construction on 49.2 million acres of forest.

While the plan was aimed at the protection of endangered species and preserving pristine forest lands, leading energy trade associations last Friday sent a letter to President Clinton requesting that his administration give more weight to the benefits that the oil and gas reserves beneath the roadless forest land has to offer to the U.S. public.

"We are disturbed that the Forest Service has virtually ignored the public benefit of resource development from these multiple use lands," said the letter, which was released to reporters by the American Petroleum Institute over the weekend. "Moreover, the Service has failed entirely to acknowledge the importance of oil, natural gas and other resources on these lands and the negative impact such massive withdrawals will have on the nation's energy supply."

The letter was signed by Red Cavaney, the president f the API, as well as the heads of 10 other associations including the American Gas Association, National Mining Association and the Independent Petroleum Association of America.

The letter stated that some 10 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and 500 million to 1.2 billion barrels of oil were estimated to be buried beneath the roadless areas.

The roadless area plan comes up at a potentially crucial time for both the energy industry and the outgoing lame duck Clinton administration.

Natural gas, oil and electricity prices have all seen uncomfortable spikes this year as below-average stockpiles of oil and gas have been aggravated by the increased demand for gasoline and energy required for heating and air conditioning.

Energy industry leaders and sympathetic Washington lawmakers have declared that increasing access to energy reserves on federal lands was the best, if not the only, answer to the growing energy crunch.

The letter reminded Clinton that his administration's Comprehensive National Energy Policy calls for increased use of natural gas, which is clean, abundant, and not under the control of foreign governments.

While keeping the roadless areas closed to development might satisfy Democratic allies in the environmental community, the White House runs the risk of appearing to be placing conservation goals ahead of the needs of consumers who have to pay higher utility bills.

The incoming Bush administration has said it favors increasing such access, however it doesn't take the helm until January while Clinton's agriculture secretary, Dan Glickman, is set to decide on the roadless area plan this month.

The letter restated the energy industry's contention that the technology exists to carry out oil and gas production in an environmentally low-impact manner. Such activity can't take place, however, without roads to bring in personnel, drill rigs and other supplies — or to facilitate the construction of pipelines to carry the gas and oil to market."Roadless areas create unnecessary hurdles in the construction and maintenance of energy infrastructure," the letter said.

The Forest Service said last week that it had gone over 1.6 million individual comments from the public on the roadless area plan, and called forest conservation a tradition dating back to the turn of the 20th century when the National Forest Service was created by President Theodore Roosevelt.

"Creation of the National Forest System…although unpopular with some at the time, is today viewed as an enduring victory for conservation," declared Forest Service head Mike Dombeck. "It is my firm belief future generations will regard this proposal in the same light." Error: Unable to read footer file.