WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration will allow oil and gas drilling on Utah lands once reviewed for possible wilderness protection, and environmentalists said Thursday that other areas may follow.
In a lease sale next month, the Bureau of Land Management will auction rights to drill for oil and gas on more than 17,000 acres, mostly in the Book Cliffs region of eastern Utah, that a 1999 review under the Clinton administration had determined could warrant wilderness designation.
The lease auction was made possible by an agreement struck in April between Interior Secretary Gale Norton and Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt to resolve a lawsuit the state had filed against the department.
Leavitt was confirmed this week to head the Environmental Protection Agency.
The settlement, reached in private meetings, rescinded some protection for 2.6 million acres in Utah and potentially millions of additional acres across the West.
http://www.newsday.com/news/politics/wire/sns-ap-wilderness-drilling,0,5955106.story?coll=sns-ap-politics-headlines
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore