DENVER — The Bush administration announced plans Monday to allow oil and gas companies to expand beyond the boundaries of their leases at the Canyons of the Ancients National Monument in southwest Colorado.
It marks the first time exploration has been permitted to extend outside leased areas at a monument.
Environmental groups say the decision is one of the clearest examples of the administration's policy of increasing energy development on the nation's most-prized public lands.
The Bureau of Land Management approved a seismic exploration project to begin Friday at the Canyons of the Ancients near Durango, allowing energy companies holding oil and gas leases at the monument to delve into nearly 1,900 acres of unleased land.
With about 85% of the 164,000-acre monument already leased for energy exploration, the BLM said the new project will provide a better map of the size and shape of the fossil fuel reserves under the monument.
Environmental groups counter that the encroachment into unleased lands will not only do damage to sensitive biological and archeological areas but set a dangerous precedent.
"They are going to ... leave it wide open to development," said Mark Pearson, executive director of the San Juan Citizens' Alliance, a Durango group that monitors oil and gas issues on public land in the area. "If it can happen here, it can happen anywhere. This doesn't bode well for other monuments around the country."
Pearson said his group would appeal the decision.
LouAnn Jacobson, the monument's manager, said the new exploration is the most equitable way to balance the preservation of archeological sites and still allow lessees to drill.
One goal is to prevent companies drilling on private land near the monument from siphoning the oil and gas reservoirs that exist under the BLM land, she said.
President Bush has made no secret of his goal of increasing energy development on public lands. Expanding production at home, he argues, will ease America's dependence on energy sources abroad.
He wants to drill for oil and gas in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and his administration kept pushing for this even as national environmental groups made it clear that killing the initiative was their prime goal. The House approved a scaled-back development plan for the region, but the Senate rejected it.
