President Bush Opening Public Lands Near Parks for Drilling

Petroglyphs in Nine Mile Canyon

President Bush is continuing his legacy of environmental devastation by passing last minute legislation to facilitate opening Public Lands for Drilling.

According to Bureau of Land Management maps that have been published this week, it is expanding its oil and gas lease program in eastern Utah to include tens of thousands of acres on or near the boundaries of three national parks.

National Park Service officials say that the decision to open lands close to Arches National Park and Dinosaur National Monument and within sight of Canyonlands National Park was made without the kind of consultation that had previously been routine.

Of course, this news isn’t sitting well with environmental groups, which were already upset with the bureau’s original lease proposal, because they said it could lead to industrial activity in empty areas of the state, some prized for their sweeping vistas, like Desolation Canyon, and others for their ancient petroglyphs, like Nine Mile Canyon.

The bureau’s new maps, made public on Election Day, show not just those empty areas but 40 to 45 new areas where leasing will also be allowed.

The tracts will be sold at auction on Dec. 19, the last lease sale before President Bush leaves office a month later.

Park Managers aren’t happy either, and worry about the impact on the air, water and wildlife within the parks, said Michael D. Snyder, a regional director of the Park Service who is based in Denver.

The Park Service is usually given one to three months to comment on leases, Mr. Snyder added. “This is the first time,” he said, “where we have not had sufficient opportunity to comment.”

In Utah, miners and oil developers were upset in 1999 when the Clinton Administration set aside 3 million acres as protected wilderness. The state, (Whom I’m sure, makes more money from drilling these vanishing areas, than tourism) sued the Federal Government, overturning protections from those areas.

Kathleen Sgamma, the government affairs director of the Independent Petroleum Association of the Mountain States, said “If you can’t develop oil and natural gas in this part of rural Utah, we might as well concede the United States has lost all interest in energy security.”

Uhhh, Yeah.

Here is an interesting link. This is a Power Point presentation that she did for the “Oil and Gas Emission Inventory Project” It seems to be a Global Warming Denial and Skeptics dream sheet. In it, she talks about the opposition (Sierra Club, Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, the Wilderness Society..), how much money they have, and “What were up against”.

Well thanks for the presentation Kathleen. Now we know what we’re up against!

Thanks for stopping by and don’t forget to keep up the good fight and alter the eco!

Photo Credit: Ianturtan via Flickr Creative Commons

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