a picture window to the future through oil and gas. And I think the best 

 pitcure that we can show you is in an area called the Overthrust Belt. I 

 just spent a week with our environmental writer and a photographer up in 

 the Overthrust Belt. We spent a month researching this and we did a 

 three-parl series in the Denver Post. Lots ol it. We called it 

 Overthrust, my editors called it over-kill. Forgive me for running 

 through numbers, but numbers will put this in perspective for you. 



Oil men call the Overthrust Beit the last frontier for oil and gas in 

 the continental 48 states. The Overthrust Belt is an area where the east 

 coast and the west coast kind of merge together in the well... geologically 

 it looks like a shattered house of cards. Well, in those little nooks and 

 crannies there are tremendous amounts of oil and gas that have been 

 trapped there and oil men are going after it with a fever that hasen't been 

 seen since the days of Prudhoe Bay or the huge discoveries in the Middle 

 East. In the last five years, 15 major oil and gas fields have been found 

 there within a 25 mile radius of the town of Evanston in southwestern 

 Wyoming. One of those fields it is suspected, is going to be about 15 

 miles long and two or three miles wide. It's going to be the greatest 

 natural gas strip found in this country with perhaps 35 trillion cubic feet 

 of natural gas. That's enough to keep this country going on natural gas 

 for almost two years alone. There's a vast amount of oil there also. 

 Collectively, many geologists are saying that this could be a greater area 

 with respect to reserves than Prudhoe Bay. 



To reflect on that you can look at the drilling rig count in that area. 

 A couple of years ago you could count the drilling rigs on one hand. As 

 of the first quarter of this year there are 42 rigs making holes up there. 

 They say that number will double within the next year. That's how 

 important that is to the country. The country sees those numbers and 

 says "We're saved." No more shahs. No more sheiks. We're saved and 

 we can thumb our noses at the Arabs. Wyoming is our savior." They 

 don't take a look at what that's doing to the town of Evanston and what 

 effect it is having on the quality of life there. We spent three days in 

 Evanston and it was--ril be blunt with you--it was almost like a sentence. 

 And I have never seen anything like it and I have been covering energy 

 for quite a while. Growth is absolutely out of control there. The 

 population there will grow by 29 percent, perhaps as much as 30 to 35 

 percent next year. The population is 9,700 now. With that influx of 

 drilling rigs there, all kinds of support vehicles are coming in: concrete 

 trucks, road graders, pipe trucks and pipe companies, you name it. 

 They're all coming in there because they have to get the energy out. As 

 a result, a six-pack of beer that costs me two bucks in Denver, Coors 

 beer, costs me $3 in Evanston. A grilled-cheese sandwich that I buy for 

 85 cents in Denver costs a buck-and-a-half . We compared the rates for 

 the Best Western motel we stayed at there and the rate was more 

 expensive than all but one resort Best Western in three large Rocky 

 Mountain cities. And you have to have a reservation there at least a 

 couple of months in advance. The motels are packed. Entire families are 

 staying there for four to six months at a time because there is no 

 housing. There's not even a crummy little house trailer to get into. 



