As the Lee Fire on Monday was closing in on 137,000 acres and the dubious achievement of becoming the state’s 4th largest wildfire in history, Garfield County Commissioners (BOCC) had a public conversation promoting natural gas drilling and timber sales with Jacey Albaugh, legislative assistant for U.S. Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) on the U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee (ENRC). Lee, who chairs the ENRC, was responsible for this year’s public lands scare when he proposed selling off public lands for housing. The BOCC wrote a letter to Lee on June 23 opposing his plan. According to legistorm.com, Albaugh has worked for Lee in various capacities since at least 2022.
But first, the BOCC listened to monthly human services updates including federal government assistance disbursements and how H.R. 1 (aka the Big Beautiful Bill Act) will impact Garfield County. Total disbursements came to $1,078,883.52 for July. Sharon Longhurst-Pritt, director of county human services, reported that just over 12,500 county residents use Medicaid, about 4,000 use food assistance and new applications are 17% lower than in June. She added that most of the food assistance between Carbondale and Parachute goes to Rifle and Glenwood Springs residents.
Longhurst-Pritt took on the task of explaining Medicaid changes, such as eligibility and work requirements, and how difficult it will be to implement them, including increased workload and no federal direction or funding.
Other items included approval of plans for a cell tower on Davis Point near New Castle; a letter of support for a grant from Colorado Parks and Wildlife’s Colorado Outdoor Regional Partnerships Initiative to the Colorado River Valley Economic Development Partnership; a lease agreement for two sheriff department vehicles; and a contractor’s yard on private land near Carbondale.
In the afternoon came the conversation with Albaugh, which lasted close to an hour. “I cover forestry policy as well as oil and gas issues,” said Albough, whose parents live in Carbondale. “I believe you all were in D.C. earlier this year,” she said. “So it’s a pleasure to meet you and it’s good to be here on your home turf.” Commissioners appeared excited about the upcoming discussion. Mike Samson shook Albaugh’s hand twice.
A discussion with someone connected to a congressional ally appeared to embolden Jankovsky to criticize the new state rulemakings regulating oil and gas operations and National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) requirements. “We go through planning hell with the Biden administration, the Obama administration, where we would have upwards of 12 [environmental impact statements] in front of us,” exclaimed Jankovsky. “Then the Trump administration comes along and we don’t have any, which is great!”
Albaugh said that Lee was interested in what she called “permit reform” and seemed to view both NEPA and the Endangered Species Act as liabilities. “We’re looking at ways to stymie, or really kind of change, some of the litigation on NEPA issues because I know that hampers a lot of very good projects,” she explained. “We’re looking at ways we can reform the land management process, make it easier to develop energy and other multiple use activities on federal lands.”
She referred to the Endangered Species Act as another roadblock to resource extraction on public lands, calling it “a broken system”. “The whole point was to recover species and then get them off the list,” she opined. “Instead it’s been a holding ground, and it’s been weaponized completely to stop projects. It’s essentially turned into an unofficial land grab device.”
Albaugh works mainly with forestry and oil and gas issues, about which she had plenty to say. She said timber sales are “a good way to prevent wildfires.” Jankovsky agreed. “We’re dealing with forest fires right now and if we had a clear cut somewhere, it just stops, slows down the fire,” he said.
They lauded the end of the Roadless Rule, which has kept oil and gas operators and loggers from building roads across unroaded U.S. Forest Service lands for over two decades. They praised Lee’s commitment to coal mining. “We opened up over 4 million acres for coal leasing as well as expediting some of the NEPA processing timelines for mining projects,” said Albaugh. “It’s reliable energy that’s affordable,” she added. “There’s no reason we should be shutting down perfectly good energy assets when we’re facing a massive energy shortfall.”
Citing a rancher in Utah who lost his grazing allotments due to wildfire this year, she said livestock grazing is a good way to take care of public lands. “Grazing is such an incredible tool for landscape health and fire mitigation,” she explained.
The BOCC’s approach to resource use on public land got a receptive ear from Albaugh. Samson conjured the ghost of the Jordan Cove Energy Project, a now-defunct liquid natural gas export terminal and pipeline proposal in Oregon that planned to get Canadian and U.S. natural gas to Asian markets. It was scrapped in 2021 but, now that Trump is in office, an Arizona company hopes to revive the project. Samson said he wants Lee to support the project.
Samson also mentioned how the three commissioners might come to Washington, D.C. to talk to Lee or Interior Department staff. “We’ll even take you out to dinner,” he said.