New Wild West: The price of Bush's drive for energy

[emad]

!Amid the remote and rugged beauty of Wyoming, a sleepy Old West town has burst back into life as energy companies flock to drill for oil and gas. Many residents fear their quiet life has gone for ever. By Andrew Buncombe
27 June 2005


Two eggs over easy. Dry wheat toast. No coffee, just iced water. A half order of french toast. A stack of pancakes with syrup.

Fast and furious, Billy Pape has been cooking breakfast orders at his diner for the best part of 50 years. When he opened the Patio Grill in Pinedale in 1959, his was the only business in this old Wild West town that did not shut down for Wyoming's harsh, six-month winter.

From his vantage point on Main Street, he has seen the town's fortunes wax and wane over the years, the swinging pendulum of prosperity as regular a fixture as the old-timers who perch on his counter stools every day and drink their morning coffee from brown china mugs.

But the boom that is gripping this town now may be different to anything that Mr Pape, 72, has seen before. Over the past couple of years, Pinedale has enjoyed an extraordinary boost from gas drilling that has boosted businesses and filled the coffers of the local authority with millions of dollars in tax revenues.

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=650026

[TransitJohn]

1. As a Wyoming native

and geologist who works in the industry (spent a lot of time on the Mesa outside Pinedale), I can say that maybe all the cash our state is flush with isn't worth it. If all you Americans would quit demanding cheap, convenient energy, I'd go back to school, or work in hydrology. Get to it!