WASHINGTON — A New York congressman wants the Bureau of Land Management to stop selling oil and gas leases on federal land in Utah that he says should be protected as wilderness areas.

Rep. Maurice Hinchey, D-N.Y., sent a letter Thursday voicing his concerns to Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne, after a House Appropriations Interior Subcommittee hearing on next year's budget.

Hinchey said he has been dismayed to watch the Utah Bureau of Land Management office lease land near Canyonlands National Park, Dinosaur National Monument and other protected areas, "despite the fact that BLM has recognized the wilderness characteristics of these spectacular, but unprotected, lands."

Hinchey has long had an interest in environmental issues, and he said the government has to stop selling off land to oil and gas developers that it has deemed suitable to preserve as wilderness, especially because there are other oil and gas leases elsewhere that have not been used.

He wants the BLM to stop selling land that it said in a previous study had "reasonable probability" to be a wilderness area, as well as land Hinchey wants to see designated as America's Red Rock Wilderness. Hinchey is one of the key sponsors of a bill that would protect those more than 9.5 million acres of wilderness-quality BLM lands in Utah. Since 2003, about 125,000 acres of that land has already been leased for oil and gas, he said.

Kempthorne spokesman Shane Wolfe said the department is still reviewing Hinchey's letter. Wolfe added that Kempthorne has proposed investing $15 million into conserving and restoring land in seven Western states where energy is produced on federal lands.

Hinchey wrote that the BLM has a surplus of more than 24 million acres of federal land leased for oil and gas, but there is no production on it, including 3 million acres of land in Utah. Hinchey said there is no reason for new leases on "wilderness quality" land.

"The responsible course of action here is to protect these lands for future generations to enjoy, without subjecting them to the potential degradation that oil and gas development would cause," Hinchey wrote.

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Contributing: Associated Press.

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