Protesters can't stop sale of 116 parcels

The Bureau of Land Management's quarterly oil and gas lease sale Friday started like any other auction: A fast-talking professional auctioneer scanned the crowd as bidders raised numbered ID cards, one-upping each other.

But the sale inside the BLM offices in Salt Lake City faced some complications. For the 100 or so protesters holding signs, walking and chanting outside the BLM building, the sale of 116 parcels of 131 offered, or more than 148,000 acres of public lands, represented the auctioning off, or selling out, of Utah's wild and scenic places.

"It's about love, actually — love of place," said Deeda Seed, a protest organizer with the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance. "People here aren't opposed to drilling."

Seed said the protesters' aim was to tell the BLM and bidders inside that some people oppose drilling near national parks and wilderness areas. Seed held up a sign that read, "Middle-aged moms for wilderness."

The first BLM sale of the day, at 8 a.m., auctioned off blocks of 58 parcels in Utah, Idaho, Oregon and Wyoming, for about $6.5 million. Those parcels were bid on by companies interested in developing geothermal resources on public land.

Utah's share of the geothermal sale brought nearly $5.7 million for 44 parcels on more than 144,000 acres. Bids ranged from $2 to $210 per acre, with Ormat Nevada Inc., based in Reno, Nev., logging the highest bid at $665,600, or $130 per acre, on one parcel.

If any of the sale parcels are developed, Utah will get a share of the royalties that the BLM collects. The state also received half the proceeds from the sale Friday; 25 percent of the revenue goes to counties where parcels were sold. The federal treasury gets the rest. The same breakdown for royalties holds true if a geothermal, oil or gas lease produces.

Prior to the sale, the BLM pulled eight parcels off the table, citing concerns over cultural resources. Protesters, however, were far less worried about the geothermal leases than they were the oil and gas leases, which were put on the auction block at 10 a.m. Friday.

Critics of the sale in recent weeks have voiced concerns about the parcels adjacent to Arches and Canyonlands national parks, Dinosaur National Monument, Desolation Canyon, Nine Mile Canyon and other culturally or environmentally sensitive areas. The National Park Service last month also wasn't happy about learning that many parcels were so close to its parks.

The BLM started with 241 parcels on nearly 360,000 acres as its initial offering for the lease sale. Park Service officials negotiated with the BLM to remove some of the parcels. A federal lawsuit was filed this week by the Natural Resources Defense Council and other groups, with the aim of stopping the auction.