[pct-l] and so it starts

[Bighummel at aol.com (Bighummel@aol.com)]

In 1986 I was on a helicopter field course looking at structural geology up 
the Rocky Mountains put on by my employer,  Amoco.  One morning we flew out of 
the Raquet Club in Jackson Hole and landed on top of a 13,000'+ peak in a 
portion of the wilderness area to the south.  It felt very strange to me and 
several of the other geologists who had climbed and backpacked to so easily get to 
the top of such a gorgeous mountain.  

As we stood there the senior geologist explained the scene in front of us, 
pointing out that we were at the northern edge of the overthrust belt and that 
about 400 to 500 billion cubic feet of natural gas might be trapped there, in 
this incredible alpine environment.  

He noted that from him to the senior management in Amoco, the shared opinion 
that this was a "line in the environmental sand" across which Amoco would not 
step, but noted that under higher resource values in the future there might be 
technology developed that could extract the gas from remote sites without 
ruining the environment that we gazed upon.  

I thought that I would share this just for perspective.  No judgements.  We 
all value the resource in beauty.  Some more than others.

IMHO, YMMV, HYOH,

Greg Hummel