Salazar brothers visit Meeker

MEEKER — United States Senator Ken Salazar and his elder brother, Colorado State Represen-tative John Salazar, stopped in Meeker after touring the Rio Tinto coal mine Tuesday.
Many people from Meeker and Rangely, including all three county commissioners, attended the gathering which featured comments from both Salazars regarding energy development in the area.
“We need to support development of our natural resources and also protect the resources that make this place special,” Salazar said.
Everyone was supportive of Salazar’s legislation to transfer approximately $65 million from the Anvil Points trust to the counties of Rio Blanco and Garfield, where the most impacts are occurring but he said he would need the help of republican Senator Wayne Allard.
Salazar said he will also introduce new legislation after the Bureau of Land Management rejected recommendations from Colorado Governor Bill Ritter, which would develop energy on the Roan Plateau in phases and also protect an additional 16,000 acres of valuable wildlife habitat.
“The governor came back with recommendations that made a lot of sense with phased development and more surface protections,” Senator Salazar said. “The state of Colorado would get higher returns for an already known resource with phased development.”
Salazar also said he has requested an extension to the 90-public comment period on the BLM’s Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS), which ends today, saying it is moving too fast.
“We need to move forward in a responsible way and there are many unanswered questions to the amounts of water and energy needed for commercial development,” Senator Salazar said. “I’ve been to Shell’s Mahogany project and they have said they are years away from knowing if their technology is commercially viable. This will affect the western slope forever and administration wants to finalize the rules and regulations, putting it into law before knowing if any of the technology is going to work.”
When asked about the economy, Representative Salazar called the stimulus package a “farce,” although, he said he voted for it. He encouraged investment in American infrastructure.
“For every $1 billion we invest in American infrastructure, we create 47,000 high-paying jobs,” Rep. Salazar said.
The Salazar brothers also mentioned the farm bill they both continue to work on and thanked everyone for attending before continuing their state tour, which included a stop in Rifle.