The Salt Lake Tribune — Energy bonanza creating a stampede By Robert Gehrke

Oil and gas companies eager to drill in the Rocky Mountain West appear to have an ally in the Bush administration, which is approving wells at a pace well ahead of the Clinton administration and looking to get even faster.

An Associated Press review of thousands of applications to drill on Bureau of Land Management land since 1998 shows a 34 percent increase in the number of wells approved under Bush when compared with the last three years of the Clinton administration.

The vast majority of the permits, 94 percent since 2001, are clustered in five states: Colorado, Montana, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming — a key region in the administration’s push to open more public land for energy development.

The BLM has received nearly 26,000 applications to drill wells and approved nearly 19,000 since 1998 — nearly three of every four. …

The AP review found that, during the first 33 months of the Bush administration, the BLM approved 9,876 wells, or about 299 per month. In the final 40 months of the Clinton presidency, 8,934 wells were approved, or 223 per month.

The volume of permit applications has also grown fairly steadily, from 3,790 in 1998 to 4,715 in 2003. The number approved has fluctuated some, but has generally increased as well.

Oil and gas companies contributed nearly $2 million to Bush’s 2000 campaign and have already given nearly $1 million to his re-election bid, according to campaign finance records compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics. The industry has contributed $29 million to political campaigns since 1999, with roughly 80 percent going to Republicans.

Billions of dollars are at stake….