Green Options

July 15 marked the day that would have nullified another Bush-era act in regards to the environment. It would have been a day for the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (SUWA), the Natural Resources Defense Council, and the Wilderness Society to cheer. It would have been a day that released around 15,000 acres of sensitive land from the firing squad of oil and gas development. It would have been. But it wasn’t.

Oil and gas leases have been a hot topic for a long time, especially since the controversial disruption of a BLM land sale by student activist Tim DeChristopher in Salt Lake City this past December. The sale which, according to some, was a midnight move by the Bush administration found itself floundering when an unknown bidder (DeChristopher) won parcel after parcel of land. Since December the leased parcels have been pulled back and forth between the BLM and the Interior, [...]

Salt Lake City, UT - The Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (SUWA) announced that on May 28, 2009 an agreement was made with Equity Oil Company (”Equity”) concerning oil and gas leases on lands in Utah’s San Juan County.

The agreement “gives SUWA certainty that oil and gas development in an important part of the Hatch Point proposed wilderness area will be subject to the applicable Resource Management Plan and additional restrictions,” said Stephen Bloch, Conservation Director and Attorney for SUWA.

Public land near Arches National Park, Dinosaur Monument, and Canyonlands N.P. may get spared from a “midnight fire sale” on Friday for energy leases in Utah.

National Park Service officials have protested over some of the lease sales near the parks and monuments, resulting in deferrals for all or part of 23 parcels (37,731 acres) near national parks.

I can’t help but think that the deferral is just throwing a bone to the environmentalists to keep them quiet…

The energy lease sale in Utah puts 300,000 acres of public lands up for grabs to oil, gas, and geothermal development, including some of the West’s most environmentally sensitive areas. On the block are 132 oil and gas parcels (163,935 acres) and 44 geothermal parcels (142,333 acres) in Uintah, Carbon, Duchesne, Grand, Emery, Garfield, and San Juan counties, some of the wildest and most remote places in Utah.