20 Minutes Worth of Oil in Rocky Mountain Front

GREAT FALLS, Montana,, May 6, 2004 (ENS) - The Blackleaf area of Montana's Rocky Mountain Front contains less than a day's worth of natural gas and 15 minutes of oil for the nation, according to a new analysis of federal government data.

Last month the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) initiated the review process required for new drilling permits on several existing leases located in the Blackleaf area.

The move has outraged conservationists, who say the Rocky Mountain Front is one of the nation's most treasured natural landscapes.

The report, released today by The Wilderness Society, also finds that all the federal land in the Rocky Mountain Front contains less than a week's worth of natural gas and 20 minutes of oil.

The Wilderness Society used data from the United States Geological Survey (USGS) to estimate the amount of "economically recoverable" natural gas and oil along the Front and several sub-areas.

"Economically recoverable" oil and gas is recommended by the Congressional Research Service as the appropriate basis for policy analysis.

"This report shows that it makes no sense to drill the Front," said Gene Sentz from the Front community of Choteau. "For almost a 100 years, Montanans have worked together to protect the Front. It is crazy to throw that legacy away for a miniscule amount of natural gas - especially when so many other places in the Rockies are already open to energy exploration."

The Rocky Mountain Front is the area where the east slope of the Montana Rockies suddenly merges with the prairies and is inhabited by a range of wildlife including grizzly bears, westslope cutthroat trout, wolverine, lynx, elk, deer, and bighorn sheep.

Montana's Rocky Mountain Front stretches for more than a hundred miles, from Glacier National Park to near Helena, Montana.

In 1997, the Forest Service placed the Front off limits for any new leasing for 10 to 15 years.

During public consideration of that proposal, more than 80 percent of the comments received by the Forest Service supported the no new leases decision.

That decision, however, did not apply to pre-existing leases such as those in the Blackleaf region where the drilling applications now being considered by the BLM.

"It is important that the public have a full understanding of what's at stake along the Front," said The Wilderness Society's Peter Aengst. "Drilling the Front could mean trading a few minutes of oil and a few days of gas for a lifetime of watershed protection, recreation, hunting and other benefits for current and future generations of Montanans."