From The Mountain Mail (Keith Berger):
After some spirited competitive bidding, the parcel sold for $37 per-acre to 3E Geothermal, LLC, in Colorado Springs. The company paid a bonus bid of $29,600 for the parcel.
You may be wondering what is next. There were 16 protest letters submitted on the geothermal parcel during the protest period. Prior to the sale, the protests were screened for any critical issues that would merit deferring the parcel from the sale. Though the expressed concerns are important, they were not deemed critical, or were addressed in our pre-sale environmental review, so the sale of the parcel proceeded. Concerns included contamination of ground water, surface water and vegetation, interruption of animal habitat and recreational activities, traffic, noise from industrial drilling, unstable soils below some prominent cliff formations, and a potential for earthquakes. Each letter will be reviewed in-depth with a response to the protester as to whether the protest is upheld or dismissed and why. The lease will not be issued until all 16 protests have been resolved. If the lease is issued it would be the first step in any geothermal development process.
The bureau’s next action would come if the lessee submits a project proposal. The bureau would then initiate an environmental review of the proposal and seek your input for concerns and potential issues related to that proposal…
Information about the Mount Princeton Geothermal Lease Parcel is available on our website at http://www.blm.gov/co/st/en/fo/rgfo.html or you can contact Melissa Smeins, Royal Gorge Field Office geologist at (719) 269-8523.
More coverage from Joe Stone writing for The Mountain Mail. From the article:
3E Geothermal LLC, the company that acquired the Mount Princeton geothermal lease Wednesday, is a wholly owned subsidiary of Young Life and will “protect the natural beauty of our camp’s setting,” said Steve Lundgren, camp manager of Frontier Ranch. Frontier Ranch, a Christian youth camp owned by Young Life, occupies much of the surface estate of the 799-acre geothermal lease near Nathrop. “We did not want to be in a situation where other parties would have the ability to scar the landscape so critical to giving our guests a great camping experience,” Lundgren said…
When asked about the possibilities for developing the geothermal resource, Lundgren said lease owners have a responsibility “to make a good faith effort to evaluate the viability of geothermal resource production.” He said Young Life desires to protect the natural beauty of the land but is “currently contemplating the most conscientious way of complying with the requirement.” Under U.S. Bureau of Land Management terms of the lease, failure to develop the geothermal resource would result in termination of the lease in 10 years.