"Scenic" Colorado

It is fun to watch the choice of words that editors and reporters make and how that choice is used to try to sway opinion. To read the Rocky Mountain News, you would think that the Roan Plateau was a Rocky Mountain National Park like feature:

The scenic Roan, beloved by hunters and anglers for its wilderness backcountry and diverse wildlife, is estimated to contain enough natural gas to heat 9 million homes for nine years.

It might be "beloved" by a very small number of folks, but it isn't a name that was well known to very many Colorado citizens until the the last month or so.

And of course, we can't forget the national treasure that the Vermillion basin has become since Bill Ritter's flyover.

Ritter also has asked the BLM not to lease the scenic Vermillion Basin in northwest Colorado for oil and gas drilling.

If the Rocky really believes that those are two unique and irreplacable treasures that gas drilling will destroy, it needs to make that case. If it can't make that case, then it needs to be more careful in its descriptions. Every square inch of Colorado is beautiful and beloved by someone, but that doesn't mean that we should put the whole state off limits to mining and drilling even if Mark Udall, John Salazar, and Ken Salazar think we should.

Democrats At War On Colorado Economy

In a scathing editorial that did not mention Mark Udall's name, but easily could have, the Gazette once again used the word "extremist"

Gov. Bill Ritter stepped off a helicopter and into hot water July 3, when, after an aerial tour of Northwestern Colorado with Sen. Ken Salazar, he declared that the Vermillion Basin should be off limits to oil and gas drilling. His opposition apparently came in an epiphany. “The governor in a moment of spontaneity asked the pilot to land on the Vermillion,” Ritter spokesman Evan Dreyer told the media. “He felt it would be important to stand on the Vermillion with the senator (Salazar) to get a sense of the place.”

In all this communing with nature, Ritter evidently forgot to consult with local elected officials, who worked for years to draw up a leasing plan they are happy with and who say a drilling ban will cost their citizens millions of dollars in tax and royalty revenues. They weren’t pleased...

Commissioners pointed out that energy development in the basin is something they welcome. But suddenly, after years of consultations and public process, Ritter is attempting to monkey-wrench the arrangement. That’s becoming a pattern with this governor. He’s also attempting to derail oil and gas leases on top of the Roan Plateau, another suddenly sacrosanct area for anti-drilling extremists, and is in the process of packing the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission with people who are indifferent or hostile to the industry.

The Gazette appears to be giving Mark Udall a free ride after twice calling him or his environmentalist policies "extremist." They could easily mention, but didn't, that Udall is a very active Ken Salazar / Bill Ritter ally in this war on the Colorado economy. He has tried to restrict public access to roads on federal property and he has tried to deep six drilling on the Roan.

The editorial is really good from beginning to end. We had a hard time cherry picking items to quote. We suggest you read the whole thing.