April 29, 2004 -- Ted Turner may be biting the hand he
feeds. The media mogul gives millions to environmental and conservation causes,
but finds himself in the awkward position of having to drill more gas wells on
his pristine wilderness ranch in New Mexico.
Some environmentalists have been on the warpath in
Washington, D.C., for months to control gas exploration in his area and along
the eastern face of the Rocky Mountains.
One conservation group on the forefront of the debate,
the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership (TRCP), gets major funding from
the Ted Turner Foundation.
Its leader, conservation lawyer Jim Range, doesn't see a
conflict because he says Turner runs his drilling operations in a clean,
ecologically sound manner.
"It's a model of the way exploration should be done," he
says.
Turner's Vermejo Park Ranch, about three-quarters of the
size of Rhode Island, is rich with billions of dollars in coal and methane
reserves.
Natural gas prices have more than quadrupled in the past
two years, making Turner's land a richer gold mine than his media holdings once
were.
Turner recently signed a deal to double the number of
gas wells on his scenic wilderness to 1,060. The agreement more than doubles
his mineral royalty rate to 6.5 percent with El Paso Corp., the gas driller
that has the mineral exploitation rights to the land.
Natural gas has been rising in favor with environmental
groups as a cleaner-burning alternative to oil.
The Energy Future Coalition, a clean-energy lobby group
funded largely by two of Turner's charitable foundations, is lobbying
Washington to require cleaner coal-burning technology and more smog-reducing
vehicles - such as New York City's fleet of gas-burning city buses.
Turner once owned a $11 billion stake in Time Warner,
but he sold much of it to fund his charitable causes, and currently owns shares
worth about $672 million.
In 1997, he pledged $1 billion of his fortune to the
United Nations Foundation, which says he's on track with his 15-year payment
schedule.
At his ranch, where game hunters also spend $13,000 for
brief hunting trips for elk, mule deer and antelope, Turner strictly supervises
the gas exploration, concealing rigs behind tree plantings so they can't be
readily seen. Ground surfaces generally aren't disturbed beyond a small
platform rig.
El Paso says it will drill horizontal tunnels from
current rigs to search for gas in the coalbed seams. The process is much
cheaper, four times more likely to make a successful strike and - because it
can be done from existing platforms in numerous directions, likes spokes of a
wheel - causes less harm to the surrounding land.
NOTE:
In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, any
copyrighted
material herein is distributed without profit or payment
to those who have
research and educational purposes only. For
more information go to: