OUR VIEW

0 Comments | Gazette, The (Colorado Springs), Jan 27, 2008

Drilling the dunes

Let's honor property rights

Environmentalists are worked up because the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service plans to let a Canadian energy company drill for natural gas in a wildlife refuge in the San Luis Valley, within two miles of the Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve.

The company plans to drill two test wells in the Baca National Wildlife Refuge, and opponents are concerned about effects on wildlife, air and water quality.

"We feel it's an utterly inappropriate area to have gas and oil drilling, on many accounts," said Ceal Smith, coordinator of the San Luis Valley Water Protection Coalition, formed to oppose drilling, in a Jan. 19 Gazette article.

The location of the drilling is part of a 100,000-acre purchase two years ago by the U.S. Department of Interior. It was bought in order to "restore, enhance and maintain wetland, upland, riparian and other habitats for wildlife, plants and fish species that are native to the San Luis Valley."

An environmental assessment study of the proposal determined there would be "no significant impact" to the refuge as a whole. The closest drilling rig to Sand Dunes National Park would be about two miles from the park's northern boundary, and the Fish and Wildlife Service has determined it would be hard for any casual viewer to discern.

Wildlife enhancement and restoration is laudable work, and it's understandable how activists might feel threatened by drilling rigs. But they need to be flexible on these types of issues if they're to be taken seriously when genuine threats to wildlife and natural environments come along. In this case, environmental groups demanded an environmental assessment and got one. The assessment found there was nothing significant to fear. Often, environmental assessments show the opposite. If the assessment process is valuable enough for environmentalists to demand it, then they should be willing to accept its findings.

An even greater issue is at stake than potential wildlife disruption and the interests of tourists at the park. It's called property rights.

When the Department of Interior bought the acreage in question, it failed to purchase the mineral rights. The agency bought the land for $33 million, but it didn't buy all that lies below the surface. The sub-surface property lawfully belongs to Lexam Energy Exploration, of Toronto.

It's fortunate that an environmental assessment determined that little harm would come from the drilling. If it hadn't, however, the mineral rights would still belong to Lexam and it would be within its rights to continue to pursue what lies below.

Again, campaigns to protect wildlife and natural environments are important. But so is the energy humans need to go about their lives. So are property rights, and the profits owners rightfully expect from them. In this case, with an environmental assessment predicting minimal impact, property rights and energy should reign supreme. Environmental activists would be wise to pick another fight.

Fooling ourselves on drug war

White House drug czar John Walters recently criticized Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez for failing to stop the flow of drugs from his country into the United States and Europe. "Where are the big seizures, where are the big arrests of individuals who are at least logical coordinators? When it's being launched from controlled airports and seaports, where are the arrests of corrupt officials? At some point here, this is tantamount to collusion," Walters said in a story by the Los Angeles Times.

It's hard to doubt a word that Walters said. What's confounding is the fact that Walters, who heads the Office of National Drug Control Policy, seems surprised. In his comments, one can sense an expectation on the part of Walters that Chavez might actually help with drug interdiction, as if he feels some responsibility toward free humanity in the West.

It's time for Walters and his agency to lower their expectations. Chavez is not some neighborly, benevolent dictator. At best he's a far-left socialist, and some call him a communist. He hates the United States and he wants drugs pouring across our border. He's not stopping drug trafficking because he believes U.S. drug use, not drug traffickers drives the trade; it's not his problem. The sooner Walters realizes this, the more effective he will be. Nobody will keep drugs out of the United States, except the United States.

DHS asks the impossible on border

The Department of Homeland Security just announced that it plans to tighten the identification requirements along the U.S.-Canadian border as of Jan. 31. It will no longer allow either Americans or Canadians to come into the country simply by presenting a drivers license and declaring their citizenship. Not only would this new requirement create additional delays along the border and cost border communities money, it is in direct defiance of a law just passed by Congress.

There's not enough time for all the U.S. citizens who routinely go into Canada and return to get passports between now and next week.