A pleasant day in a pleasant meeting with pleasant people.

But frustrating, just the same. Because, ostensibly, the function of this group is to identify criteria by which the federal government can look at the damage being done to sage-grouse populations by gas field development, and know when to say "Enough."

Most of the people in the room want to do just exactly that.

But for some people, a definite numerical minority, their sole purpose is to prevent those criteria from ever being agreed upon and put into print. So that their employers, the gas companies, can all the meanwhile continue to drill, drill, drill.

They succeeded again today.

As they have for over a year.

And every day they delay agreement, the rigs drill, drill, drill.