Oil exploration in Nevada may have gotten easier with the announcement that one of its most vociferous opponents the Nevada Wilderness Project is closing up shop.
Dear NWP member:
I’m writing to let you know that after 13 years of keeping the beer cold and state wild, the Nevada Wilderness Project is closing its doors. Our Board made this difficult decision on Jan. 26, 2013 in response to a couple of major developments – the departure of our Executive Director and other key staffers, and the uncertainty over future funding. Consequently, we have decided to cease all fund raising and have decided to wind down and dissolve the Nevada Wilderness Project over the next several months.
Wrote Board President Debra Bookout on the groups webpage.
Earlier this year the NWP submitted its comments about the Mary’s river test well to the BLM suggest to the agency that the company operating the well, Noble Energy, pay for a more exhaustive study on the potential impacts of the project.
“The Nevada Wilderness Project is urging the Bureau of Land Management to fully investigate the environmental and social repercussions and geological implications of a proposal to use fracking in an oil and gas exploration project near Wells, Nevada,” Mortimore wrote on the groups website. “Noble Energy has applied for permission to use hydraulic fracturing technology to explore for gas and oil near the Mary’s River west of Wells. We think they should have to do a full-on Environmental Impact Report on the proposal rather than a scaled down Environmental Assessment.
[media id=2 width=320 height=240]
Noble is proposing to drill up to 20 oil and gas exploration wells on federal and private lands over a two-year period. They want to drill two to four test wells in the first year, with the option of shooting more holes in the ground if they need to “define” the amount of oil and gas. They’d use hydraulic fracturing to explore the underground presence of gas and oil.”
“We are meeting with some of Senator Reid’s staffers Thursday to bring up our concerns about the Well at Mary’s River Ranch near Wells and the one a Fergusson’s Spring near Wendover.” said Craig Mortimore, Renewable Energy Coordinator of the Nevada Wilderness Project (NWP). “Although neither of us can confirm that the observed drilling rig is utilizing hydraulic fracturing technology, one must draw a simple inference that the altered condition of the spring is likely due to the drilling activity. It is dismaying that invasive actions like this are apparently focused upon lands where the developer evidently evades the rigors of NEPA. We see the same thing with the Mary’s River operation in that private lands are also being targeted. According to the Department of Minerals, though, the proponent has not filed for private lands drilling permits with their office.”
Successful fracking has created an oil boom throughout the United States and will according to analysts help turn America into the largest oil producer in the world by the next decade.
And if preliminary tests yield anywhere near there forecasts, Wendover, Ely, Elko and Wells could become part of that boom.
The fight against fracking has yielded mixed results at best even in the most environmentally conscious states. In states that already rely on mining for a large portion of tax revenue the calls against the new technology have been lonely and most often ignored.
In Nevada they will now be lonelier.
