Selling Our Nation's Heritage: Bush to 'lease' National Parks for Drilling
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Lawsuit aims to stop Utah drilling auction - WASHINGTON - Conservation groups filed a lawsuit Wednesday to block the Bush administration's last-minute sale of oil-and-gas drilling leases in Utah near national parks and ancient rock art panels.
The Bureau of Land Management has scheduled an auction Friday to sell drilling leases covering more than 100,000 acres of wild land in eastern Utah.
The land being considered for drilling is some of the most spectacular scenery in the country, including land near Nine Mile Canyon, Dinosaur National Monument and Arches and Canyonlands National Parks.
Rep. Brian Baird, D-Wash., called the lease sale "an early Christmas present to the oil and gas industry from a lame duck administration with one foot already out the door. Once these pristine wilderness lands are destroyed we can never get them back."
Baird said he was not impressed that officials had scaled back the original plan to lease about 360,000 acres of public land for oil and gas development.
"It's a little bit like someone telling you they're going to rob only part of your house," Baird said. "It is a final insult from an administration that has done so much to destroy this country."
"These lands do not belong to Bush and Cheney. It's our land — public lands — and the BLM is supposed to be protecting lands on our behalf (Robert Redford said via satellite from Los Angeles during a news conference in Washington). " --DON'T YOU AGREE?
VIDEO: Dec. 17: Actor Robert Redford discusses 300,000 acres of Utah land near national parks which the government will be auctioning for oil and gas drilling rights.
The Bureau of Land Management has scheduled an auction Friday to sell drilling leases covering more than 100,000 acres of wild land in eastern Utah.
The land being considered for drilling is some of the most spectacular scenery in the country, including land near Nine Mile Canyon, Dinosaur National Monument and Arches and Canyonlands National Parks.
Rep. Brian Baird, D-Wash., called the lease sale "an early Christmas present to the oil and gas industry from a lame duck administration with one foot already out the door. Once these pristine wilderness lands are destroyed we can never get them back."
Baird said he was not impressed that officials had scaled back the original plan to lease about 360,000 acres of public land for oil and gas development.
"It's a little bit like someone telling you they're going to rob only part of your house," Baird said. "It is a final insult from an administration that has done so much to destroy this country."
"These lands do not belong to Bush and Cheney. It's our land — public lands — and the BLM is supposed to be protecting lands on our behalf (Robert Redford said via satellite from Los Angeles during a news conference in Washington). " --DON'T YOU AGREE?
VIDEO: Dec. 17: Actor Robert Redford discusses 300,000 acres of Utah land near national parks which the government will be auctioning for oil and gas drilling rights.
