Summary of the Article “All Fired Up-Tapping The Rockies” by Mitchell

The article All fired up-Tapping the Rockies by derriere G. Mitchell appe bed in July 2005 issue of National Geographic. It is an interesting commentary on verve development initiatives that are being planned for nervy mountain surface area in Wyoming. The article identifies five important locations in Rocky Mountains that fork up been selected by the government for zipper exploration. The Bureau of Land Management controls these regions and grass exact them out for energy development when the right time comes. Already, Pinedale tabular array has seen aggressive atom smasher and energy development activities which have dented the splendid landscape to a large extent.The area is laced with pipelines and there are already 500 wells that BLM plans to use for inbred gas beginning purposes. The number of wells is likely to rise to more than 3,000 soon. It must be make clear that if all these regions are livelyly exploited, it can baffle serious harm to the environment and for this reason, there is a provision in Bush administrations 2001 National energy policy report that indicates that 40 per centum of natural gas resources found in Rocky Mountains will non be used be take of environmental concerns.But opponents put the figures at 12 percent. It is interesting that while BLM is proposing more aggressive exploration, it has not yet fully exploited the existing leased natural gas resources. Out of cozy to 46,000 leases nationwide, only half were producing anything while the rest were lying idle. Why lease more land when the existing leases are not being utilised properly. Throughout this region, two types of natural gas are being targeted confining sands gas and coal bed methane (CBM).The Powder River Basin is rich with CBM resources but extracting the gas is more costly than sands gas as yettide though drilling costs much less. The extraction problem is as well as aggravated because of the water that comes out during exploration. This water ha s to be safely abandoned off but it is highly saline and can thus cause damage to land and crops. While the officials might come up with more benefits that they feel would accrue to landowners with this kind of exploitation, the residents of the region do not harbour with them. People believe that due to lack of water, the area has become unlivable.Montanas Rocky Mountain Front is another area rich in natural resources but it is less vulnerable than other parts because owners have rights to mineral under their land. However if aggressive energy developments efforts are started in this region, even these owners will be forced to allow vehicular access to conterminous wells along with pipelines and drill pads. People are furious with BLMs inability and lack of commitment to provide safer environment. Some ranchers in San Juan Basin recoil that their region has become unfit for cattle because of the wells.Land erosion and defilement have made the environment hostile to cattle. The article speaks against governments energy policies and explains the environmental damages that would result due to unmitigated use of land for energy exploration. People have complained of governments failure to take into consideration environmental safeguards which has made living harder. Water resources are being brutally exploited for gas exploration when it is desperately required by the residents to meet their daily usance needs.