From Deseret News archives:
BLM gets an earful on oil, gas lease sale
6 groups, retailers protest sites near scenic Utah areas
The Colorado-based Outdoor Industry Association also filed a separate protest Thursday with the BLM along with six other groups, including the Utah company Black Diamond Equipment, which makes climbing gear and skis.
"We don't feel like the economic contribution recreation makes ... is being represented in the BLM's decision-making process," said Outdoor Industry Association spokeswoman Amy Roberts, who is based in Boulder, Colo.
Roberts said recreation contributes 65,000 jobs and $5.8 billion to Utah's economy, with $300 million in state tax revenues and $4 billion annually in retail sales and services.
Under pressure from the National Park Service and watchdogs, the BLM this past week temporarily pulled from the table 24 parcels near Arches and Canyonlands national parks and Dinosaur National Monument.
The BLM also deferred, for now, six whole parcels and 15 partial parcels in the Nine Mile Canyon area, home to myriad panels of centuries-old Indian rock art. A parcel being offered near Desolation Canyon, a 2,397-acre tract, was also pulled from the sale.
"I think we are acting with due diligence," said BLM spokeswoman Megan Crandall. "The fact that we're deferring them (parcels) is exactly the thing we need to do ... The protest process is there just for this reason."
But those same parcels could crop up again in future lease sales, making environmental and conservation groups worried about the BLM's plans. The Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance was one of six groups, including The Wilderness Society and Natural Resources Defense Council, that together filed a single protest Thursday over a total of 92 parcels offered in the December lease sale in Salt Lake City.
"These are parcels the National Park Service asked to withdraw, but the BLM refused to do so," said SUWA attorney Stephen Bloch. "This sale is still an audacious move by the BLM and the Bush administration. The tinkering around the edges that the BLM has done to date hasn't solved the problem."
BLM officials said Thursday that they will consider the protests and decide by Dec. 12 whether to pull any more parcels from the lease sale. Crandall said the option always exists to permanently pull parcels from future lease sales, but she wasn't ready to predict what the outcome will be of this week's protests.
Last week, members of Congress sent two letters to Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne, urging him to do more to protect the areas in Utah that would be impacted by oil and gas development on parcels being offered in the lease sale.
E-mail: sspeckman@desnews.com
