The oil and gas regulations were enacted for a reason. They were meant to protect our environment and residents near drilling operations. Our environment is forever and is a major reason for tourism, which is an important component of income in the state. The residents will be there whether drilling operations are under way or not.

What possible reason could be rationally offered up to suggest that those regulations are really of less or no importance when there is an economic downturn? If they are important enough to be law, why are they less important when the economy suffers? They were not enacted to punish the oil and gas companies. The state does not have a responsibility to see that corporations are profitable at the expense of its environment and its inhabitants.

The gas is in the ground and sooner or later it will be extracted. When it is, people will be put to work. Why is it more important to get the gas out of the ground right away in an expedient manner and relax the possibility of the kind of problems that the rules were meant to minimize?

It appears that the editors of The Daily Sentinel are falling for the media blitz of the oil and gas interests.

It is clear, considering current demand for gas, that it is easier and more profitable to drill in newly discovered gas patches. They’ll be back in extensive operations here eventually. What’s the big rush to sacrifice well-researched and constructed law in response to loud complaints from those who will come and leave when they are through and care less about our concerns as expressed in law? Things done for the sake of expediency are, more often than not, regretted later.

JOHN BORGEN
Grand Junction

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 7th, 2009 at 3:33 pm 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.