Insist on Environmental Review Before Utah Drilling Lease Auction
- by: Care2
- recipient: Selma Sierra, Utah State Director, Bureau of Land Management
The Bureau of Land Management is trying to push a controversial oil and gas drilling lease in Utah through before the end of the Bush administration's time in office.
The BLM's plan to sell oil and gas drilling leases for nearly 360,000 acres near Arches, Canyonlands and Dinosaur National Monument in Utah on December 19 means that any potential leasers could begin irreversible wilderness destruction before the Obama administration comes into office.
And these leases aren't even necessary! Already, the Bush administration has leased almost 27 million acres of onshore public lands for oil and gas drilling - that's larger than the state of Kentucky. But many aren't being developed. We should not be opening more federal land to drilling when existing resources are sitting unused - especially when a proper environmental review hasn't occurred!
Tell the BLM: Remove the Utah parcel from the December 19 auction until the National Park Service can properly investigate the environmental impact of drilling on that land!
Dear Director Sierra,
I am writing to urge you to delay the December 19 oil and gas lease sale of nearly 360,000 acres of land near Arches, Canyonlands and Dinosaur National Monument. The National Park Service has not had sufficient time to investigate the environmental impact on parks near many of the 241 parcels put up for lease.
BLM surveys indicate that these lands are wilderness-caliber landscapes, with irreplaceable petroglyphs, important wildlife and sweeping vistas. Without an adequate understanding of the impacts on the air quality, water quality and wildlife habitat, we should not move forward with such potentially detrimental plans.
[Your comment here]
Please pull these tracts from the December 19 auction to give the National Park Service time to study the effects of leasing.
