1. ENERGY DEVELOPMENT:
Climate change concerns voiced in protests to BLM leases

The Bureau of Land Management administers 264 million acres of public lands. For the first time, environmental groups have filed protests to BLM leases in an effort to make the agency consider impacts to climate change.

Environmental groups are trying a new tactic in their efforts to protect public lands in the West from energy development: In a series of protests in recent weeks, environmentalists have accused the Bureau of Land Management of failing to adequately analyze the greenhouse gas emissions related to increased oil and gas drilling.

Jeremy Nichols of the Rocky Mountain Clean Air Action Project said climate change and air quality have typically not been raised as issues in the context of leasing. "This is truly a first," he said.

While the natural gas industry promotes its product as a "cleaner-burning fuel," environmentalists say the global warming impact of natural gas, also known as methane, is 21 times more potent than carbon dioxide. In Colorado, preliminary inventories show that accidental leaks and deliberate releases inject more than 5.6 million tons of methane and carbon dioxide into the air every year. Go to story #1