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BLM gets an earful on oil, gas lease sale

status to the entire state of Utah. Would that make them happy?

We will be hungry, cold and in the dark, but it will be worth it. We can walk to nine mile canyon to see the ancient grafitti without encountering any oil wells, fast food restaurants or roads along the way.

It's amazing how people can't just have a civilized debate, but instead have to use terms such as "grafitti" when describing something that is so important to those whose ancestors put it there in the first place. Somehow, for thousands of years, those Natives were able to "make it" without ever drilling for oil. I, for one, say, Yes, let's not only grant wilderness status to the entire state of Utah, but give every inch of land back to those who knew how to take care of it in the first place.

Get real. Are they really asking for anything more than that a particularly bad set of parcels was offered for leasing? The BLM leases parcels every 3 months, and I have never witnessed such an outcry; in fact, the process has been pretty invisible to the public up to now. Why is this one different, I have to ask? Could it be because these really ARE terrible choices for leasing, issued on election day in the fast-waning hours of the Bush Administration?

Will tapping needed resources in these designated wilderness areas prevent recreators from accessing such areas? Recreation's revenue streams will not drop because of the presence of such enterprises. Let Utah move forward in assisting our nation become independent in meeting our energy needs.

As a Nine Mile Canyon activist I welcome the involvement of all of these groups on reiging in control of our public land - it's about time the opinions of someone besides oil and gas should be heard.

Right now only 4% of all oil and gas leases are actually being used. Keeping this in mind, could someone please give me an intelligent argument as to why we should still be opening up some of our most sensitive and treasured land for developement now? When the industry has exhausted the remaining 96% of their leases then maybe we can talk.

There are plenty of areas of Utah to rape without having to put a wellhead or road in every vista. Keep the view from Delicate Arch pristine. If it is possible to access the ground through slant drilling or selective placement of the pad, then go for it. Otherwise, we are just cutting off our noses to spite our faces. (And either build a new road to avoid Nine Mile Canyon or get paving parts of the road, to cut down on the dust)

If you've seen the landscape around Grand Junction, you'll know what's in store for Arches, Desolation, Nine Mile and Dinosaur if these leases go through. They've chopped the land up with multiple roads and drillpads in every square mile. The damage is obvious.

These groups aren't watchdogs. They are single-minded special interests with very small memberships. Usually one lawyer and a buddy or two.

And in the eyes of the media, one lawyer labeling himself as the Southern Utah Helper of Wilderness (or other creative name), all at once gets credibility and air time. They don't deserve it. There are thousands of Utahns that want to see economic activities and jobs in their communities. Let's talk to these folks once in a while.

It's not just about "recreation," it's about irreplaceable, priceless natural and cultural heritage that can easily be destroyed because it is so fragile.

Unfortunately, far too many of my fellow ATV riders and off-roaders have no comprehension of the irreversible damage they and their machines cause. Nor do those who see only dollar signs pumping from oil and gas wells instead of the God made beauty and goodness of our incredible lands.

There's a word out there that's unfamiliar to many in Utah: CONSERVATION. We call ourselves conservatives, but don't even begin to understand the root of that word. Instead, we follow Utah's blindly myopic environmental ethic: Multiply, multiply and pillage the Earth.

Environmentalist will be the ones who bring our country to it's knees. let them freeze to death in the dark.

I support the BLM completely, I dont have a problem with looking at some area's and determining the use there, but I am sick and tired of the envirenmental agenda always trying to stop progress no matter what. The envirenmental socialistic way of thinking is destroying the free society I grew up in and I will not allow my children to grow up and live under their authoritarian rule. Develope our natural resources now that we may be able to continue to have reliable and inexpensive energy.

The only single minded interest groups are the oil companies. Once gone these places can never be replaced. We need places to get away from it all. I don't want to hike the canyons of Zion with oil wells at every turn.

Opening up these small areas will do nothing to stop our oil dependence to other countries. However we will be known as the generation that destroyed priceless artifacts.

The US based oil companies have 62 million acres under lease already with no activity at all.

It's not about recovering the oil now, it's about stockpiling our oil resources for future use, and keeping others from getting them. That is greed.

These leases do not give anyone the right to drill. They only grant the right to look and see what is there.

We are seeing conservation right now. It is putting us into a recession. People are not buying or using what they would normally. How do you like it? Do you have a 401K? Did you have a 401k? Are you one of the 550,000 that got a pink slip recently?

I like conservation too, but probably not to the unbalanced extent that you do.

Many Utahns would happily fill in Zion NP if it brought "good" $10 an hour jobs and a six month supply of gas, so it's not a surprise that they so utterly devalue the treasures that draw millions here every year and disdain anyone who would try to preserve them.

"Yo to id" - the recession is clearly a meltdown of a disastrous set of financial practices, not a product of environmentalism.

The answer to would this impact recreation is YES... people come for the quiet, the fresh air and the viewscape. How dare groups attempting to watchdog this AND our rural economy and property values be called 'self interested'. DUH! If you want to recreate in Bakersfield or WIlmington CA or Grand Junction CO then great, you can mountain bike there thru a bunch of oil rigs. Otherwise, let's consider keeping wild national jewels wild, since we are talking about less than 1 day's supply of oil in exchange for permanent loss of these places!

Also folks,this stuff takes A LOT of water, clean water we don't have to spare in the desert, and makes it toxic and poisonous... where will that go?

Dave,
I have to agree with you. I would hope that these parcels would not prevent people from recreation. I would also hope that the recreation enthusiasts (including) myself, wouldn't stop the developement of needed resources so we can be independent of other countries. I was always taught to work before play. Work is what makes us self sufficient. There has got to be a way or enjoying the beauty of our state and be self sufficient in drilling for oil as well.

Ironically, nearly all of those who oppose a few small, hard-to-find oil wells near a desert park support putting 400-foot wind turbines in scenic canyons and mountains.

What a double standard!

Utahns love the natural beauty of the state. That's why they leave here and, for the most part, make less money they could elsewhere.

But they also want to have decent economic opportunities, much of which in rural Utah, involves resource development on federal lands. Get used to the idea. It is how families put food on the table in many of our rural counties. That doesn't mean there will be an oil rig right next to the dinosour bones in eastern Utah, or a big tanker truck on the beautiful red rock ridges in Moab. But, there may be one - for a time - within ten miles of those sites.

All we ask for is balance and some opportunity. The BLM and other federal agencies have been very reasonable for the most part and struck a decent balance. Don't know why y'all got so excited about these few thousand acres. It isn't like zero thought was given to the BLM proposals. It was studied for ten - or more years....

Don't drill for oil inside Zions National Park. No one is advocating this.

Drill for oil outside of Zions or any other park. That way the environmentalists can have their wilderness and have electricity at their homes and gas in their tanks to drive them there.

Win, Win everyone should be happy. Why can't the environmentalist understand this simple logic. You can't have unlimited wilderness and sustain the level of population on the earth at this time.