Source of this article - Los Angeles Times, February 5, 2009.
The Interior secretary voids the December sale of 77 environmentally sensitive parcels to oil and gas companies.By Nicholas Riccardi and Jim Tankersley
Reporting from Washington and Denver — The Obama administration Wednesday
canceled 77 leases its predecessor sold to oil and gas companies that wanted to
explore beneath the red rock country of Utah, the first of several expected
steps to reverse the Bush administration's Western legacy.
"We need to
responsibly develop oil and gas supply to protect us from our dependence on
foreign oil," Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said, "but we need to do so in a
thoughtful and respectful way."The December auction of more than 100,000
acres of federal land was one of a number of last-minute environmental changes
made by the Bush administration that Salazar and the Obama administration are
expected to wrestle with over the coming months.
Salazar has said he
wants to revisit Bush-era regulations that open much of the West to oil shale
development, the delisting of the gray wolf as an endangered species, and a rule
that allows federal agencies to avoid consulting scientists on whether the
Endangered Species Act applies to certain projects.
"Many of those
decisions were rushed," Salazar said in an afternoon conference call with
reporters.
Environmental groups said the new administration has its work
cut out for it.
"There's so much to be done with the Bush administration
legacy," said Robin Cooley, an attorney with Earthjustice, "that we're going to
be dealing with it not for months but for years."
Energy industry groups
said the decision to void the lease sales was a bad start for the Obama
administration.
"When we take public lands and put them off-limits to
national gas development, we're denying ourselves a resource we need," said
Kathleen Sgamma of the Independent Petroleum Assn. of Mountain States.
On
election day, the Bush administration announced that it was selling leases to
hundreds of thousands of acres in Utah, saying it was the culmination of a
seven-year process to change the way federal lands are administered in that
state. Some of the parcels adjoined national parks, including Arches and
Canyonlands. Contrary to normal procedure, the National Park Service was not
consulted in the sale.
The administration removed some parcels from the
list before its Dec. 19 auction, but environmentalists sued, arguing that most
of the remaining leases were in lands that required greater review. Last month,
a federal judge barred the government from cashing checks from the auction,
saying the matter deserved a greater hearing in court.
Salazar let stand
39 leases in areas that were less environmentally sensitive but said the 77 he
was reversing were too close to "American iconic treasures that we need to make
sure are protected."
He said that the parcels would be reevaluated and
that some could find their way back to auction.
During his conference
call, Salazar declined to say whether he would reverse the resource management
plans that enabled the Bureau of Land Management to sell the leases.
He
also declined to state his position on an investigation by the U.S. attorney in
Salt Lake City into an environmental activist who posed as a bidder and won the
rights to 12 parcels.