Meis, Rowland display
good sense, foresight
Mesa County Commissioners Craig Meis and Janet Rowland hosted a press conference recently, demonstrating that good government is possible. Unlike the federal government, Mesa County foresaw the current downturn and chose to govern accordingly.
The commissioners have made budget changes and took measures to insulate the county during the downturn. The press conference also reminded me just how important the energy industry is to our jobs and economy. And this is why the uncertainty created by Bill Ritter’s new drilling regulations frustrate me.
The limits on drilling are coming at the worst possible time and are making a bad economic situation even worse. In fact, even The Wall Street Journal now says Colorado has the most restrictive drilling regulations in our country. It appears there are some elected officials, like Meis and Rowland, who govern with common sense and foresight. I wish the folks at the state Capitol had the same approach and vision.
BRANDON CHILDRESS
Grand Junction

County phone conference
was not worth the time
Really, what was I thinking? That the county commissioners’ town hall interactive robo call would actually be a question-and-answer session with a balance of positive and negative comments and participants? Not.
That Sen. Josh Penry wouldn’t be there because it was, after all, a county commissioners’ event? Not.
That the question-and-answer part of it would actually be longer than the speeches (think Craig Meis’ 10 minute opening)? Not.
That a member of the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission would be present to answer questions and balance the oil and gas executive who was there? Not.
The event cost $2,700 and it should have been billed to the Penry campaign. He bashed Gov. Ritter five out of nine times he spoke. He saved the 10th time to bash the stimulus bill and tout his values.
And since there were only 11 questions asked, it was pretty much the Josh Penry Show.
Janet Rowland’s one answer was to whether she would take the stimulus money. Yes, she would because “it’s our money, it’s our money and it’s our money.”
What a waste of $2,700 and an hour of my time. I don’t think I’ll participate the next time. I’ll just tune into Rush Limbaugh or Bill O’Reilly for a real “feel good” experience. Not.

MARY BETH PYLE
Grand Junction

Changing 1872 law
makes no financial sense
During a recession, the loss of significant revenue from hardrock mining on federal lands is hardly something the United States can afford, but that is exactly what is threatening to happen.
About $1 billion a year of hardrock minerals are produced from public lands. U.S. citizens directly benefit from this production through severance, income, use and property taxes, high-paying employment and the every-day availability of metals.
Admittedly, the fossil-fuel industries pay 8 percent to 18.75 percent federal royalties on their public-lands products, and hardrock miners extract metals from these lands without this burden. On the other hand, fossil-fuel producers do not face the same high degree of risk and cost required to discover and develop much-harder-to-find metal ore bodies. For example, while it takes only about 6 weeks to drill and then put into production a coal-bed methane well in Garfield County,  it takes five to eight years to discover and then put a small breccia-pipe uranium mine in northern Arizona into production.
Last month, HR 699 was re-introduced into the U.S. House. It proposes changing the 1872 Mining Law by establishing an 8 percent royalty on new mines, and a 4 percent royalty on operating mines. The bill would kill the goose that lays the golden egg.
The bill will not establish any new environmental standards that are not already covered by current laws and regulations. It will, however, stop responsible mining on U.S. public lands by financially disabling an industry. Killing off an industry in a time of recession will do nothing, according to recent economic research, but lengthen the current recession. See www.jrap-journal.org/pastvolumes/2000/v38/F3831.pdf.
Please contact supporters of HR 699 — the Western Colorado Congress, the Western Organization of Resource Councils and Rep. John Salazar — and let them know that you do not support this bill.
LARRY TURNER
Palisade

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 26th, 2009 at 6:53 am and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.