Salazar scraps sale of oil-and-gas leases in Utah

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Salazar scraps sale of oil-and-gas leases in Utah

By PAUL FOY – 17 hours ago

 

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — In a high-profile reversal of the Bush administration,

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said Wednesday the government is scrapping the

leases of 77 parcels of federal land for oil and gas drilling in Utah's redrock

country.

 

" In the last weeks in office, the Bush administration rushed ahead to sell oil

and gas leases near some of our nation's most precious landscapes in Utah, "

Salazar said from Washington in a teleconference call with reporters.

 

He said he had ordered the Bureau of Land Management, which is part of the

Interior Department, to not cash checks from winning bidders for parcels at

issue in a lawsuit filed by environmental groups.

 

The sales were worth $6 million to the government in addition to royalties on

any oil or gas production.

 

" We will take time and a fresh look at these 77 parcels to see if they are

appropriate for oil and gas development, " Salazar said.

 

A federal judge put the sale of the 77 parcels, totaling about 100,000 acres, on

hold last month until the lawsuit was resolved. Now, Salazar is refusing to sell

any of them — at least until the new administration reviews them.

 

Conservation groups promised to press ahead with the lawsuit to challenge

long-term management plans that made the sale of the parcels possible. The BLM

approved the plans, governing 7 millions acres of public land in Utah, last

year.

 

Among critics of December's lease auction was Robert Redford, who owns Sundance

ski resort and has spent a lifetime on horseback in southern Utah's canyons.

 

" I see this announcement as a sign that after eight long years of rapacious

greed and backdoor dealings, our government is returning a sense of balance to

the way it manages our lands, " Redford, 71, said in a statement.

 

Salazar said some of the lease parcels are too close to Arches and Canyonlands

national parks and Dinosaur National Monument. Other leases taken off the table

were on the high cliffs of whitewater sections of the Green River through

Desolation Canyon.

 

Salazar also acted to protect plateaus populated by big game atop Nine Mile

Canyon, sometimes called the world's longest art gallery because of its ancient

rock-art panels.

 

The National Park Service protested the Dec. 19 auction weeks before it was

held, and the BLM removed some parcels from the auction list in response.

 

At first, the BLM was going to auction a parcel so close to Delicate Arch, the

signature landmark at Arches park near Moab, drills might have been visible

through the center of the 33-foot-wide span. That parcel was 1.3 miles away. It

was taken off the auction list under Park Service protest, but the BLM took bids

on other drilling parcels within view of national parks.

 

Fifty-five contested parcels are in areas proposed for protection under

America's Redrock Wilderness Act, which has lingered in Congress for years

because the Utah delegation opposes it.

 

" This area in southern Utah is the land of my youth, " said Rep. Brian Baird,

D-Wash., who grew up in Colorado and is co-chairman of the congressional

National Parks Caucus. " Its beauty is stunning, its silence is deafening and it

is simply no place for an oil derrick. "

 

Earthjustice, the group that filed the auction lawsuit, estimated the lands in

question would produce only an hour and a half of oil for the whole country at

current consumption rates.

 

But those parcels also could have produced clean-burning natural gas, said

industry groups, which condemned Salazar's decision as counter to President

Barack Obama's goal of energy independence.

 

" We hope today's decision does not signal the administration is returning to the

failed policies of the past, leaving much of America's vast energy resources

locked up while the nation's demand for energy continues to grow, " Jack Gerard,

president of the American Petroleum Institute, said in a statement.

 

Salazar said he was allowing the lease of 39 other parcels auctioned off in

December that were not challenged in the lawsuit.

 

The BLM is scheduled to hold its next auction in Utah on March 24. It wasn't

known Wednesday what lands might go up for sale next.

 

" We would hope that Interior will closely scrutinize this sale list and take BLM

off autopilot under the Bush administration, " said Steve Bloch, a staff lawyer

for the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance.

 

The decision does not mean the environmental activist who disrupted the auction

is off the hook, U.S. Attorney Brett Tolman told The Associated Press. Tim

DeChristopher, a 27-year-old economics major at the University of Utah, won $1.7

million in leases even though he had no intention or means to pay.

 

Tolman said some people want DeChristopher prosecuted for running up lease

prices and safeguarding several parcels between Arches and Canyonlands national

parks.

 

To many environmentalists, however, DeChristopher is a hero. He said Wednesday

he was willing to go to federal prison if he is charged for his act of

monkey-wrenching. " This is how the environmental movement should be working, " he

said.

 

On the Net:

Bureau of Land Management: http://www.blm.gov

 

 

So, men are scattered and smeared over the desert grass,

And the generals have accomplished nothing.

 

-Nefarious War

Li Po (Circa 750)