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At a request from the Colorado Department of Natural Resources, the BLM withheld a proposed geothermal lease on property near the Mt Princeton Hot Springs Resort from its quarterly oil and gas lease sale held today in Denver.
While oil and gas leases are commonplace for the BLM, the Mt. Princeton parcel is likely to be the first lease in Colorado involving geothermal development. No other properties in Colorado have thus far been nominated for inclusion in the lease program on the basis of geothermal energy production.
According to BLM spokesman Jim Sample, the State asked for deferment of the geothermal lease in part because federal subsurface mineral rights underlie state and private property. “There’s always a concern where federal mineral rights get involved with state or private surface rights, and federal traditionally trumps state and private, but we do our best to work with the parties here in Colorado whenever that situation exists,” said Sample.
A lease will authorize a company or individual to produce geothermal energy from the public mineral estate under management by the BLM, but development is not automatically approved. “There are several hoops [operators] have to jump through before they get a drilling permit,” said Sample, including the completion of an environmental impact statement or environmental assessment.
Leaseholders have a 10-year timeframe in which to begin meaningful development or they lose their rights to the lease, according to Sample.
While geothermal energy is generally considered to be environmentally-friendly, especially compared to fossil fuels or nuclear power, not everyone is sanguine about the prospect of a generating plant nestled at the base of the Collegiate Peaks. In a recent Chaffee County Times article, Buena Vista resident Steve Glover was critical of the proposal, suggesting that viewsheds and property values would be impacted if the Mt. Princeton parcel were to be developed for energy production. “These guys are going to want to put a factory somewhere,” Glover said.
John Graham, co-founder of Chaffee Citizens for Sustainability, said that CCFS has not taken a position on the geothermal lease.
The Mt. Princeton parcel is likely to be included in the BLM’s next quarterly sale, to be held in February.
In an excerpt from email correspondence today, Chaffee County Development Director Don Reimer responded to a question about what sort of application process might be required of a geothermal project.