Colorado's Roan Plateau is blessed and cursed by its geology - an uplifted highland of beautiful ridges, valleys, and uninterrupted wilderness that, due to peculiarities of its formation and underlying geology, caps off a truly massive natural gas field. The war between conservationists and sportsmen -- who value the plateau for its biodiversity and recreation opportunities -- and the energy extraction industry and their pet politicians, has been raging for a number of years now.

The plateau's mineral rights - all of them - have now been put on the auction block by the Bureau of Land Management. This plan is diametrically opposed to the plans put forth by conservationists, which either prohibit drilling or specify a piecemeal approach whereby one small parcel is drilled, then restored before the next is opened for drilling.

BLM's plan, on the surface, does something similar, but its environmental protection measures may be insufficient and too easily waived or ignored. Conspicuously, the plan does not specify monitoring and enforcement measures, meaning the drilling companies would operate essentially unsupervised and unaccountable.

We've seen a few environmental impact statements and resource utilization plans cross our various desks here at Envirowonk, and this one seems to merely perpetuate the unfortunate trend whereby agency review, sound science, and public opinion inform agency decisions less than the desire to accommodate industry and development. The BLM, in particular, is notorious for its sycophantic attitude towards industry, and it trusting and permissive attitude towards enforcement of regulations.