Garfield County a cooperating agency for BLM greenhouse gas study

PRESS RELEASE
March 9, 2022

Garfield County will act as a cooperating agency with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) on an upcoming Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) that covers both its Colorado River Valley Field Office and Grand Junction Field Office resource management plans. The BLM requested assistance from the county to better review alternatives to oil and gas development, and to assess the severity and impacts of greenhouse gas pollution in the area, according to a letter from Upper Colorado River District Manager Greg Larson.

“This has to do with oil and gas leases and the fact that the courts required that the agency compile more information on downstream climate change,” said Commissioner Tom Jankovsky. “The downstream side looks at the use of natural gas, whether it be for the heating of homes, generating electricity, fertilizer production, or manufacturing, among other things.”

The BLM’s request noted that the SEIS aims to “quantify and reanalyze the indirect effects that emissions resulting from combustion of oil and gas may have on greenhouse gas emissions.”

The county’s participation as a cooperating agency was approved by the Board of County Commissioners unanimously, 3-0.