Stop Drilling in Wyoming?

The “brutal price” of the Bush administration’s push to continue drilling coal-bed methane gas wells in Wyoming’s Powder River Basin (“Prosperity’s Brutal Price,” by Jim Robbins, Feb. 2) will be the destruction of that land and its water--though it’s for a little more than one year’s supply of the nation’s natural gas. For the second year in a row, Powder River has been named one of the nation’s most endangered rivers. The Bush push needs to be toward implementing alternative non-fossil fuel sources, not devastating this fragile part of America.

Bonnie S. Sivers

Santa Barbara

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Robbins’ article made me sick to my stomach. He must have worked pretty hard to find one disgruntled rancher to put a negative spin on a very positive development for Wyoming. My mother worked my grandfather’s ranch in the Powder River Basin and lived a life of poverty. All she has left are the mineral rights. She’s now in her 60s, and the methane has the potential to give her some comfort for the rest of her life.

Dan Johnson

Nashville, Tenn.

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I felt sadness and sympathy for Ed Swartz and his fellow ranchers until he said, “I am ashamed to say that I am a lifelong working Republican.” I assume this means he voted for Ronald Reagan, George Bush, George W. Bush, Wyoming Sens. Mike Enzi and Craig Thomas and other Republicans over the past two decades. Now his family’s land is being destroyed by federally subsidized energy speculators, and there’s nothing he can do to stop it. What did he expect? He should be ashamed.

Don DiPietro

Los Feliz

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Gosh, I’m sorry Swartz’s water supply is being spoiled. Let me guess--he’s a Republican because he’s afraid the liberals will take away his guns. Or he objects to tax increases that might pay for social services or welfare for those less fortunate than him. If most conservatives could focus on the big picture, instead of just one or two pet issues, they would see that the big picture portrays a greedy, selfish, ruthless, lying, hypocritical Republican Party that is run by and for the rich and powerful. Perhaps when Wyoming becomes a wasteland, the people of this “very conservative, pro-industry state” will realize their allegiance has been misplaced.

Spud Smith

Lompoc