The Interior Department yesterday announced that it would cancel leases issued under the Bush administration that would have allowed oil and gas drilling on more than 100,000 acres of Utah wild lands, much of it surrounding iconic treasures like Arches National Park.
In January, Judge Ricardo M. Urbina of the U.S. District Court granted a temporary restraining order preventing the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) from moving forward with these leases. In that decision, Urbina said the Interior Department did not properly assess air pollution concentrations.
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced that the agency would cancel the leases and return to the companies the $6 million in bids on the contested parcels.
"Today’s announcement by Secretary Salazar signals a new era in the way
our natural resources are managed. The Obama administration clearly
understands that instead of allowing the oil industry to destroy places
like Arches National Park, we should be investing in the kind of clean
energy solutions that curb global warming and leave our natural
treasures intact," Bruce Hamilton, Sierra Club Deputy Director, said.
The Sierra Club is one of a coalition of environmental groups that have been working to protect areas near Arches and Canyonlands National Parks, Dinosaur National Monument, and rock art-rich Nine Mile Canyon from oil and gas drilling.
"This is the first critical step in restoring balance to managing the public lands," said Sharon Buccino, a senior attorney at the Natural Resources Defense Council. "We had in the last administration an approach that really elevated energy development… to the dominant use of public land, to the exclusion of a lot of other important values."
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