Pac West Communications and AAE

Tired of environmentalists staking the high ground on protecting the fought-over Roan Plateau in western Colorado from natural gas development, the energy industry is firing back. But the insertion into the debate of the group Americans for American Energy (AAE) promises to pump up the rhetoric and turn up the heat on politicians who don't support natural-gas drilling in western Colorado. (http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_7272209)

AAE's creation stemmed from a $3 million contract last year that Pac/West Communications, an Oregon-based consulting firm, had with the state of Alaska to educate Americans about oil drilling in Alaska's arctic refuge, or ANWR. Using Pac/West money, AAE became the message center for pushing Congress to approve opening up ANWR for drilling, according to the Anchorage Daily News. Sims said the money was a "contribution" to the group. (http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_7272209)

The industry-funded nonprofit AAE says drilling the Roan would reap a windfall for the state -- over $1 billion in the first year of pumping alone. That’s well more than the Bureau of Land Management ever figured. (http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_7272209)

But there’s a catch. Ask the group’s chief, Greg Schnacke, who left his post with the Colorado Oil and Gas Association to launch the organization, who conducted the study and Schnacke gets quiet. When the Denver Post asked, the paper reports, Schnacke protected his sources, “because they may bid on leases that will allow them to harvest natural gas” from under the Roan. (http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_7272209)

But the question is: how did Pac West orginially obtain that $3 million no-bid contract? That will be examined in the next thread.