I second Shelly Silbert’s letter (Herald, April 13) commending the BLM’s regional manager, Connie Clementson, for her commitment to move ahead with a master leasing plan for oil and gas drilling on the Tres Rios Field Office. Over the last few years, thousands of people, local organizations and La Plata County have all been asking for the MLP, and the time has come to move ahead. We should not believe that current low oil prices means that the oil and gas industry will not return here with fracking rigs.

They’ve already spent millions drilling test wells in western La Plata County, and we know the Mancos Shale contains hydrocarbons. It’s simply the price that will determine the future of drilling in our area, and history has shown that it’s awfully tricky to predict them.

If BLM moves ahead on an MLP, the public will have a greater say in what may happen than the current status quo, in which most of BLM’s lands are available for leasing. If BLM crafts an MLP with input from the communities that would be impacted by drilling, we all have the security of knowing what can or cannot happen, but if we do nothing, industry calls the shots. We should be prepared for whatever the future may bring. The worst that can happen is we have a plan that collects dust on a shelf, but if the fracking rigs show up again, I think we’ll all be relieved to know that we did the right thing.

Pete Dronkers

Dolores