ABQjournal: Wilson, City Councilor Tour Valle Vidal
By Martin Salazar, Journal Northern Bureau

Northern New Mexico rancher Alan Lackey hoped he was nevertheless able to drive home the point that even the most environmentally conscientious drilling scars the land with its network of roads, pipelines, well pads and utilities? all visible on Ted Turner’s Vermejo Park Ranch, which is being drilled.

The drilling also depletes natural resources like water, Lackey said, adding that for each well that’s drilled an estimated 1 million gallons of ground water has to be pumped out before it can start producing. …

Lackey? a Republican and a founding member of the Coalition for the Valle Vidal? pointed out the networks of roads and well pads that have sprung up on the Vermejo Park Ranch and in southern Colorado.

As I read today about damage from drilling on Vermejo, I remembered John Dimdahl’s nonsense of 6 months ago. mjh

ABQjournal: Environmentalists Hijack Public Land Multiple Use By John Dendahl, For the Journal
Friday, March 4, 2005

How can those of us wanting balanced public land use be assured that drilling won’t spoil Valle Vidal? The first place to look is in the “environmentalists'” own back yards. Ted Turner, a major financial supporter of the environment movement, owns the Vermejo Park Ranch. An educated guess of his royalty income from gas production is several million dollars a year.

Turner’s ranch hands reportedly ask guests to play the game, Find a Well. There are hundreds of wells on the ranch, yet they are so inconspicuous guests rarely make a find. …

The important point here, though, isn’t the lying and hypocrisy, it’s that production of oil or gas is being achieved at Vermejo and Rainey with essentially no land, water or wildlife damage. …

There are myriad reasons familiar to nearly all of us why we should develop domestic sources of oil and natural gas. Despite dated, obstructionist hype, the needed development can — and will — go hand-in-hand with sound environmental protection.

If Ted Turner and the Audubon Society can write contracts with producers that protect their land and water, so can the U.S. Forest Service and the BLM.

Richardson needs to tell his “environmentalist” pals to take a long, enjoyable hike — maybe go look for wells at Ted Turner’s place up north.

Lifelong New Mexican John Dendahl is a retired executive and political leader. E-mail: jdendahl@swcp.com

mjh’s blog — Search Results for Dimdahl

mjh’s Blog: anti-environmentalists

ABQjournal: Letters to the Editor
Sunday, August 14, 2005

Regarding the Corporate Welfare Act of 2005….

Billions for Billionaires

Why should the oil and gas industry require something on the order of $15 billion in tax breaks when for instance, Exxon/Mobil in one single quarter made on the order of $35 billion in profit? Exactly what kind of an energy strategy does that comprise other than giving huge amounts of money to companies already swimming in money. … And just how will that make us less dependent on foreign oil? Simple, it won’t!
ALAN PEZARO
Sandia Park

Energy Bill a Gift to Big Oil

America needs a new kind of energy strategy, but this energy bill is just another corporate giveaway which fails to help Americans at the gas pump, and deepens our dependence on foreign oil and does not diminish pollution.

The conservative Heritage Foundation said that “we’ll be dependent on the global market for more than half our oil for as long as we’re using oil, and the energy bill isn’t going to change that.”

America needs a new, visionary program for energy independence. …
REV. LARRY BERNARD
Laguna

Fuel Wasted on Energy Bill

WE USED how many pounds of jet fuel for Air Force One and how many pounds of jet fuel for commercial planes in a holding pattern while Air Force One landed and departed? all to fly in and sign an energy bill, which presumably could have gone in to law no matter where it was signed?

Perhaps if our elected leaders led by example, our energy woes would be a step closer to being resolved.
GREGORY ROTHROCK
Albuquerque