Americans Support Wildlife Preservation and Energy Exploration

New research about Americans’ attitudes toward energy exploration and environmental protection on public lands near Yellowstone National Park finds support for both, with a national survey indicating that most prefer natural gas production not come at the expense of wildlife preservation.

Today, southwestern Wyoming is the most active region in the country for natural gas exploration. Energy companies plan to drill more than 3,000 new wells there during the next 50 years.

The findings are detailed in a new Rice University report that is based on both national and local surveys. The local polls were conducted in Sublette County, Wyoming, an area about 100 miles south of Yellowstone where energy companies are rapidly developing more than 250,000 acres of natural gas fields. The research was conducted by students in Rice’s Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Management under the supervision of Marc Epstein, distinguished research professor of management, and Sally Widener, assistant professor of management. Project funding came from Rice’s Shell Center for Sustainability and from Shell Exploration and Production Company.

Sublette County is home to two of the nation’s largest natural gas fields: the sprawling Pinedale Anticline, located just west of the town of Pinedale, and the smaller Jonah. Discovered more than 50 years ago, the fields lay fallow until 1995, when new technology made it feasible for energy companies to drill profitably.

“From a sustainability standpoint, Pinedale offers tremendous opportunity for studying the balance between development and conservation,” Epstein says. “We hope our report will be useful to decision-makers in industry, government, and the conservation community.”

The report also may be valuable to other researchers conducting development case studies in the United States and abroad, he says. “This study helps establish a baseline for consideration of critical issues like wildlife inventories and residential development,” he notes. “If the academic community can establish a common set of criteria for comparing case studies, we can begin looking for a set of strategies that will benefit communities all over the world.”

In 2000, the Bureau of Land Management issued a 20-year plan to allow more than 900 wells on the 200,000-acre anticline. In the adjacent 60,000-acre Jonah, the bureau this year proposed a 50-year plan that would allow more than 3,000 wells.

The gas fields sit astride the longest big-game migratory route in North America, a 500-mile corridor used by pronghorn antelope and mule deer to move between summer pastures around Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks and winter ranges in southern Wyoming.

Environmental concerns center not only on the effects of the drilling but also on the associated residential development. One recent study projected that Sublette County’s current population of 6,000 will grow by 29 percent during the next 10 years. Residents of Sublette County say they do want residential and gas development to continue, but in a responsible manner, since these currently are equally perceived as two of the major threats to the environment. The majority of local respondents also favor a balance between development and environmental preservation. Residents want development to occur, with consideration given to the interests of wildlife and the environment.

National and local attitudes are similar regarding residential development versus wildlife preservation. However, when asked about energy development, national respondents were more committed to preserving wildlife, even at a cost to energy development. Although the vast majority of the national respondents did not live in Wyoming and may never have visited the state, they preferred that wildlife be preserved rather than be negatively affected by energy development.

“The very concept of sustainability—the idea that mankind can find a way to sustain its environment, society, and economy for future generations—implies that decisions within those three realms are inextricably tied,” explains Christian Holmes, executive director of the Shell Center. “Decisions about the environment or about resource development don’t occur in a vacuum, and ultimately, every community is faced with finding a proper balance among the three.”

The report is available at http://shellcenter.rice.edu.

—Jade Boyd