From Deseret News archives:

Ruling says BLM acted properly in oil, gas exploration

Published: Thursday, Oct. 4, 2007 12:29 a.m. MDT
 |  E-MAIL | PRINT | FONT + - 
The U.S. District Court of Utah ruled Wednesday that the Bureau of Land Management acted properly in deciding to allow a geophysical exploration project intended to identify oil and gas deposits.

The exploration will be done by the Dawson Geophysical Company, which will send several 64,000-pound trucks into a 39,000-acre portion of the San Rafael Desert. The trucks will create vibrations by lowering steel plates into the ground. Scientists will then analyze the vibration patterns in an attempt to identify oil deposits.

Chief Judge Tena Campbell gave the order after reviewing the claims of the plaintiff, the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, which filed suit on May 3.

SUWA originally contended the BLM failed to adequately review alternatives to the geophysical exploration plan and that the BLM was wrong in issuing a finding of no significant environmental impact.

Based on case law, Campbell found the BLM's decision to allow Dawson to perform its study was neither arbitrary nor capricious. She therefore denied SUWA's request to have the BLM's decision reversed.

Recent comments

Nice to see ALL of the potential public interests being protected in...

+1 | Oct. 4, 2007 at 5:03 p.m.

Hooray for a reasonable ruling. Too many judges seem to make...

RC | Oct. 4, 2007 at 12:35 p.m.

Related content
previousnext

Latest comments

Glad that he's finally going to be scouting how to beat TCU. Seems to...

Too anyone who whines about people who EARN high salaries; when was the last...

12 Utes return to Texas

Don't know bout all that "Texas" stuff, but I'm here to tell you people, that...

Gorbachev was a brilliant leader and single most important individual in...

It buys votes from every irresponsible, lazy American in order to keep the...

My fear is the damage to the economy adding trillions of dollars to the...

I don't know, Ak can be horrible too, there are those times when he only...

Utah 24, TCU 21

You are so right about the BS of these 3 radio clowns!

And some of you out there could care less if we give up our freedoms as long...

Advertisements
Advertisement