Posted on December 16, 2011 1:35 pm

A new proposal has come up for economic development that is sure to cause battles between gas company authorities and environmentalist activists, with Colorado business law attorneys caught in the middle. The Bargath LLC pipeline company has issued a proposal to bore a twenty-two mile long gas pipeline underneath the Colorado River.

The company claims that boring under the river in this fashion has been done many times in the past, and their argument is that boring under the river as they plan to do will have minimal effect on the riverbed and aquatic life therein. Still, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management has opened the door to public comments on the issue, which are due in by January 2012.

This may be a wise move on the bureau’s part, as people tend to have a knee-jerk reaction to any sort of natural gas work these days. While fracking has been a major boon to the economies of several states, there are still many vocal detractors of the process, ranging from those who claim that all of the questions haven’t been answered, to those who claim it’s outright dangerous and have brought civil suits and even criminal trial lawsuits against natural gas drilling companies.

Many corporate law attorneys have seen a lot of business from these issues.

This isn’t an issue of natural gas drilling; it’s discussing a pipeline that will transport the gas from one place to another. Even still, the very idea of natural gas drilling sends chills up a lot of people’s spines, so it’s always good to cover yourself in these situations. It will be interesting to see how the balance plays out between people’s fear of the natural gas industry, and the potential huge economic boon this sort of a public works project could represent for the people of Colorado.