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Campbell's soup
Dear Editors,
What would I name the
A-LP Reservoir? Here's my contribution. Visualize the route up
along County Road 211 into Ridges Basin. Along the road are a
series of Burma Shave signs ...
Attorneys Lining
Pockets
Accountants' Laughable
Projections
Absolutely Lousy
Porkbarrel
A Lack of
Purpose
Absent Lines for
Power
Anti Logic and
Practicality
A Landscape
Plundered
Another Lost
Paradise
Then finally, in view of
water, is a sign reading Campbell's Soup, or perhaps Nighthorse
Nightmare. At low water maybe that could be changed to Maynes' Muck
Tamarisk Nursery.
What A-LP really stands
for is All of us, Like it or not, Paying for power to pump water
uphill in perpetuity.
Sandy Bielenberg,
Durango
Stage fright
Dear Editors,
A few years ago, a group
of young men formed a rock 'n' roll band called "The Not Worthies."
They were all in their late teens and early 20s, and they played
real good. Two of them, the bass player and the drummer, were sons
of mine. The other two played guitars and traded off lead and
rhythm parts.
They had a few original
tunes and also played covers of classic rock and some more modern
stuff like The Beastie Boys and Phish. One of the guitar players,
who shall remain nameless, was so shy that he would play with his
back to the audience. Even though he was quite proficient on the
guitar, he just couldn't get the confidence to face the crowd. The
boys and I tried everything we could think of to help him over his
shyness, but as soon as people started showing up to listen, he
would turn around and face the back of the stage.
The band started out
playing at private parties and soon began getting gigs at some of
the local bars, and still Nameless would turn his back. It started
to become a problem and an embarrassment for everyone. Here's the
band playing real nice and having fun, but still he couldn't face
the audience.
I was looking through a
guitar magazine one day and found an article about Eric Clapton.
The article said that when he first started playing professionally,
he had the same problem. Clapton, believe it or not, was
embarrassed by how few chords he 4 knew
and even in some huge arenas would play with his back turned. I
though to myself, all right, here's the ammo I need to get Nameless
to face the crowd.
We talked about the
Clapton article and the upcoming gig the boys had booked for the
4th of July. The gig was to be at a party at a place called "Pyrate
Orchards" out near Navajo Lake.
There was one song in
which Nameless had a great lead solo worked out. I was able to
convince him that this was where he should "come out" and turn
around. We worked on the move during rehearsals and he said he was
finally ready.
It was just starting to
get dark when the boys hit the stage. The stage lights came on and
after a few warm up tunes they were ready for Nameless'
face-to-face debut. They started playing the song and right before
the big moment, the fireworks show kicked off out over the lake,
which was directly opposite the stage. The song reached the point
of Nameless' solo right as the first fireworks went off
perfect. Nameless jumped in the air, hit the first note of his solo
and turned around, about 10 seconds after the entire party had also
turned around to watch the fireworks. All he saw was the audience's
backs.
D.B. Finn,
Arboles
Good oil and gas news
Dear Editors,
Creating
conflict-avoidance projects in the 1960s in California and in the
1990s in the Middle East, I moved in 1998 to what I thought was La
Plata County's "piece of paradise" unaware that middle-earth was
teeming with riches and above-ground "pissing contests" being
energetically engaged in.
My first oil and gas
meeting (2000) was at Ignacio's casino. When folks weren't
screaming and cursing, they were calling for lynchings and
well-head sabotage. I believed I could be useful out of my decades
of dealing with difficult people, places and things.
Marching in Los Angeles
against the Vietnam War, my unique placards showed the "Rapists of
the Earth the Oil & Gas Companies and their South East Asia
Oil Leases." When I married a Texas oil-man in 1974, I was
embarrassed to tell anybody where his money came from.
At last month's Four
Corners Oil and Gas Conference in Farmington, I continued my search
for what I call "Energy Good News." During my 40-minute
presentation, I flashed on my Los Angeles war placards and it
seemed like I was "on-drugs." The energy industry committee members
had invited me to speak, knowing months in advance that 90 percent
of my talk was my constructive criticism of industry and regulators
regarding unnecessary conflicts with stakeholders.
In Jackson Hole, Wyo.,
last September, I produced a three-hour workshop on conflict
avoidance at a coal-bed methane conference. My rhetorical question
was: "Do you producers and regulators REALLY want to have better
relations with stakeholders?"
From my presentation at
the 2002 Rocky Mountain Gas Symposium to today, I continue to
question why there continues to be growing opportunities for
conflicts.
Where others see
problems, I often see opportunities for innovation. As the 2003
BLM/Farmington's Record of Decision slated more than 10,000 more
wells for the southern San Juan Basin, I pitched the BLM on an
all-day workshop for New Mexico citizens and folks working in the
energy sector. My oil and gas overview will be completely
independent of the BLM. It will address potential and actual
conflicts. It was recently "green-lighted" for Sept. 18 at San Juan
College.
Success stories include
news of what industry and regulators call "Best Practices" and
"Best Available Technology." For example, Acting Deputy
Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Stephen
Johnson, in his keynote address at last month's energy conference,
announced: "As of May 11, EPA will regulate reductions and eventual
elimination of sulfur from diesel fuel which causes black smoke
emissions. (EPA's) analyses indicate many premature deaths and
hundreds of thousands of hospital visits nationally will be
avoided."
Johnson said an
unprecedented 2002 Memorandum of Understanding was struck between
the EPA and Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission. The MOU
calls for looking at "opportunities for collaboration (to improve)
communication and ways we do business."
A first-of-its-kind
program in America was reported at the conference by BLM's
Farmington manager, Steve Henke. It is funded by voluntary energy
producer contributions ($400,000 to date) for improving land health
standards, studies, monitoring and special management areas,
including aerial reseeding, rain-catcher tanks and riparian
fencing.
Collectively, producers
have joined BLM's San Juan Basin Weed Management District to change
the trend, as industry has had a huge hand in spreading noxious and
invasive weeds.
Southwest producer, Pure
Resources, reportedly doesn't use products from suppliers who won't
identify hazardous chemicals. Oklahoma-based Williams Energy uses
state-of-the-art odor-control devices on residential-area
production facilities. An energy official said, "There are
legitimate complaints and bad actors. There's a lot (industry) can
do with engineering today."
"The reality we have
created as a result of the level of thinking we have developed so
far creates problems we cannot resolve from the same level of
thinking," wrote Albert Einstein.
Stakeholders thinking
that handshakes seal a deal need to expect that anything only
orally agreed to may not be honored. Regarding surface-use
agreements, include in writing everything that's
important.
Although San Juan Basin
oil and gas production is in "decline," technological advances and
high energy prices will ensure that the next few generations will
be dealing with lines of communication about our lands with pump
jacks and pipelines.