American Oil and Gas Reporter - August 2015 - 126

ConventionSection: Petroleum Association of Wyoming
Harris says he also hopes the conference will help expand PAW's circle of
friends. "I want to encourage people in
Wyoming who benefit from the oil and
gas industry to attend our annual meeting,"
he relates. "That will allow them to meet
us, see what we are all about, and learn
how we work with different groups, from
regulators to landowners. It also will provide an opportunity show PAW's value
not only to its member companies, but to
the state and the people who live there."
The convention's trade show kicks
off early on the morning of Tuesday,
Aug. 25, in the Parkway Plaza Hotel
mallway. The morning's proceedings will
feature concurrent sessions for PAW's:
* Government/Public Relations, Legal,

Taxation, and Membership committees;
* Environmental/Exploration & Production, Transportation, and Safety committees; and
* Public Lands Committee.
The rest of the day's events include a
buffet luncheon, the PAW PAC golf tournament at the Casper Country Club, and
the chairman's reception and dinner.
The trade show continues on the convention's second day, which also will include concurrent sessions featuring the:
* Wyoming Departments of Revenue

PAW Annual Meeting
Casper, Wy.

CASPER, WY.-They had a month to
sort through 9,000 pages.
That was the reality for Petroleum
Association of Wyoming Vice President
Esther Wagner and the group's Public
Lands Committee when the U.S. Bureau
of Land Management in late May released
a set of resource management plans for
activities on federal lands.
Along with revised RMPs for
Wyoming's Buffalo and Bighorn Basin
regions, the bureau also released the
Wyoming greater sage grouse land use
plan amendment, which includes nine
sage grouse RMPs to incorporate sagegrouse habitat conservation policies for
six BLM offices and three national forests
(see "Sage Grouse Plans Receive Little
Love," AOGR, July 2015, pg. 167). The
BLM largely has portrayed the sage
grouse RMPs as necessary to prevent the
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service from listing
the species under the Endangered Species
Act.
"We had 30 intense days to review
and protest," Wagner recounts. "A group
of us went through them, working long
hours and weekends in a concerted effort."
Ultimately, reports PAW President
Bruce Hinchey, the association filed
protests on all three RMPs affecting
Wyoming. "We have some real issues
with BLM creating areas that basically
are de facto wildernesses, when only
Congress has that authority," he relates.
"The RMPs also establish phased development in some new areas, which really
restricts exploration and development."
PAW Chairman Randy Harris, director
of corporate development at Black Hills

Tuesday, Aug. 25

7 a.m. Continental Breakfast, Parkway
Plaza Hotel & Convention Center Mallway
7 a.m. Trade Show Opens
8-11:30 a.m. PAW Committee Meetings
11:30 a.m. Buffet Luncheon
1 p.m. PAW PAC Golf Tournament,
Casper Country Club
6 p.m. Chairman's Reception & Dinner

Wednesday, Aug. 26

7 a.m. Continental Breakfast, Parkway
Plaza Mallway
7 a.m. Trade Show Opens
8-10 a.m. Seminars
Wyoming Departments of Revenue and
Wyoming Department of Audit: Revenue Director Dan Noble, Mineral Tax
Division Administrator Craig Grenvick,
Audit Director Jeff Vogel, Mineral
Audit Division Administrator Steve
Dilsaver
Wyoming Oil & Gas Conservation Commission and PAW Public Lands Committee: WOGCC Supervisor Mark Watson, Wyoming BLM Office Deputy
Director of Minerals & Lands; U.S.
Fish & Wildlife Service Field Supervisor Mark Sattelberg; Governor's Office Natural Resource Policy Director
Jerimiah Rieman; Office of State Lands
& Investments Director Bridget Hill;
10-11:30 a.m. General Session
PAW Chairman's Report
Election of PAW Board of Directors
Invited: Wyoming Congressional Delegation
Noon-1 p.m. Keynote Luncheon
Invited: Wyoming Governor Matt Mead
1:15 p.m. Board of Directors Meeting

and Audit; and
* Wyoming Oil & Gas Conservation
Commission and PAW Public Lands
Committee.
The general session gets under way
later that morning and is scheduled to include Harris' report and remarks from
Wyoming's congressional delegation.
PAW has invited Governor Matt Mead
to provide the luncheon's keynote address,
followed by PAW's Board of Director's
meeting, which is scheduled to conclude
the 2015 convention.
❒

PAW Files Protests Regarding
Resource Management Plans

126 THE AMERICAN OIL & GAS REPORTER

Corp. in Denver, suggests the RMPs
demonstrate the federal government's
bias toward constantly adding restrictions
on public land access. "The process of
updating these RMPs has an undercurrent
that loses sight of multiple use and tends
to lean unfairly in the direction of environmental and conservation emphases,"
he assesses.

Buffalo And Bighorn Basin
Among the new items to which PAW
objects in the Buffalo RMP is a provision
to extend from 0.25 to 1.0 miles the yearround land use prohibition for mineral
development in proximity to ferruginous
hawk nests, Wagner details. Another
change expands the seasonal buffer for
sharp tailed grouse leks. Previously, the
seasonal buffer has lasted from April 1
to May 30, but the BLM now has revised
it to April 1-July 15, she observes, and
also has expanded the buffer size from
0.64 to 2.0 miles.
"Some of the big issues with Buffalo
pertain to designations for areas of critical
environmental concern," she adds. "BLM
came up with new (designations) and incorporates the buffers around those areas."
The Bighorn Basin RMP contains
some bigger surprises, Wagner continues.
"The draft plans analyzed and rejected
areas to be included as part of master
leasing plans," she details. "Three of
those areas showed up in this final version
with that designation."
According to Wagner, in those areas-
the Absaroka Front, Fifteenmile, and the
Bighorn Front-BLM wants to add requirements such as phased development,

American Oil and Gas Reporter - August 2015

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