Deseret News | Lawsuit and protests drive oil and gas lease-sale prices down

Reader comments
Lawsuit and protests drive oil and gas lease-sale prices down

Roller Mills | 12:20 p.m. Dec. 19, 2008

Yes, let's get after it. Let's produce some of our own energy and build our economy. Let's create American jobs and stop financing terrorists.

We have enough terrorists here in our own country SUWA, Sierra Club, PETA to name a few.

Don't drill for oil in Zions Park, but drill at the front gate if you wish. When I'm in the park I won't see it and when I leave, I'll be reminded that America is once again picking herself up by her boot straps.

Let's build some nuclear power plants, some clean coal fired power plants and burn natural gas in our cars.

The air will be cleaner and our nation will have a stronger economy and will be more secure.

Anonymous | 12:38 p.m. Dec. 19, 2008

Hopefully Americans do not start burning natural gas in there cars. That would cause the cost of heating my house to skyrocket.

Steve glaser | 12:48 p.m. Dec. 19, 2008

When the BLM withdrew so many parcels on its own, its obvious that they didn't do their homework in deciding where it is appropriate to explore. We aren't going to have an energy crisis just because we delay the auction 3 months. That is, unless you think it is a crisis when the people deciding what to lease think about BOTH our energy needs and the environment.

Comments continue below

Anonymous | 12:50 p.m. Dec. 19, 2008

Steve, you will not get any support on this site, you mentioned the word environment.

These are greedy republicans who want to destroy first and make excuses for their destruction later.

basinboy | 1:25 p.m. Dec. 19, 2008

These leases don't guarantee development. Many will prove, after testing, to be uneconomical to develop. Extensive environmental analysis will need to occur before any wells are drilled. If some of you folks ever read the list of environmental conditions on an application for permission to drill, maybe you'd quit assuming that drilling means destroying. It's not about greed; capitalism allows for companies to make a profit in bringing goods to market that consumers are willing to pay for. These protesters should find better things to do with their time than dripping nasal fluids on the downtown sidewalks and causing noise pollution.

HSFAN | 2:49 p.m. Dec. 19, 2008

Protestors a god send to the Oil and Gas Industry....as protestors riot, lease prices drop redcuing the revenues the government could have commanded!

Nice job Protestors! You could not have planned it any better for the Oil Barons, than if you were actually on the payroll of the Oil Companies.....Nice job Redford and your loonies!

Anonymous | 2:57 p.m. Dec. 19, 2008

This is a joke. I hope that all the bidders lose their money and pay much more in lawsuits. These areas should have never been put up for auction, and this is just another negative thing the Bush administration has done. I hope that the new administration will go back and turn back the decision to lease these lands. Utah is not the countries wasteland. We don't need to tear apart our beautiful, peaceful places. We don't need to just sit put while the government allows these developments to destroy the beautiful and sensitive national park areas.

Boo to this decision. I very much hope it is overturned. I didn't vote for Obama, but if his team can turn this around, I will be onboard with the admin.

Shame on our state leaders who did not put more effort into fighting this as well.

Mahershalalhashbaz | 3:17 p.m. Dec. 19, 2008

It's about love of place? How corny. Who's paying that moron to be there protesting? That's all she can come up with. Lame

Voter | 3:52 p.m. Dec. 19, 2008

Ahh, good to see a face from the past back in action. Deeda Seed was one of Rocky Anderson's pet City Council members always ready for some wacky cause.

Now she is reported as a protest organizer for SUWA, and part of "Middle Aged Moms for [whatever]" She will undoubtedly show up again at the: pro-abortion rallies; anti-hunting rallies; anti-war rallies; pro-Obama rallies; global warming; save the slithery snake and down with captialism rallies. T

The same small band of "usual suspect" kook fringe agitators seem to show up at all the protest events. They should be ignored, not glorified with news media coverage.

Geezer | 4:05 p.m. Dec. 19, 2008

This sale was just the Bush administration's last thumb in the eye to those who love the land. No more leases are needed right now, because the industry has accumulated a huge stockpile during the last 8 years. They haven't got enough drill rigs to make a dent on what they've already got.

JTM | 4:40 p.m. Dec. 19, 2008

can anyone explain to me how a couple of oil wells are going to give us energy independence? Or how they're going to somehow save our rural communities? I don't know about yall, but when I make decisions for myself, I weigh the benefits with the consequences. If the consequences far outweigh the benefits, then I don't go with that idea. Am I the only one who does this? So why would anyone want to scar up our most stunning and majestic land to add 10 jobs to the economy, add a few bucks to the economy, and get us one micro drop closer to independence? It doesn't seem worth it. Why don't we just drill where it's appropriate, and not where it isn't?

Funny | 4:44 p.m. Dec. 19, 2008

The article states that protesters were less worried about geothermal drilling than nat gas and oil drilling. Hmmm, interesting, because they have nearly the same environmental impact. The same amount of roads to the site have to be built. The same amount of trucks have to drive in, and geothermal uses water which is a precious resource in Utah.

Do they think these protests through?

Here is my protest:

If we don't tap these resources ourselves, with the most minimal impact we can, someone on the other side of the world will, and they'll do it with more impact than we can imagine.

You should be protesting the way they drill on the other side of the world. US companies are required to go to great lengths to minimize everything from risk to environmental hazard. They then have to pay US sized wages to fellow Americans and pay royalties the Executive Branch of the Government for land leases.

I'm a moderate when it comes to politics, and I'm sorry, but I can't help but think your protests are against the wrong people.

Re This Is A Joke | 5:06 p.m. Dec. 19, 2008

Why is it that folks aren't protesting the job that feeds your family and drives the economy for your entire region? When they decided to drop the bomb on the oil industry in the early 80's, did it make your town into a ghost town and leave families walking away from their homes and mortgages to find a place that still had work? It did to us, out here in the Uintah Basin. Don't take away a region's entire financial base to save a tree that wouldn't be harmed anyways.

Re : JTM | 5:20 p.m. Dec. 19, 2008

10 jobs? Do a little research. ALMOST EVERY industry in our neck of the woods is tied to the oil & gas business. 10 jobs would be half the staff of just one of the 20 or 30 restaurants your plans would close down. The reality would clearly melt your brain. 30,000 people are already wondering how they will eat and support their families, and you are talking about 10 jobs? Clue in....

Definition of "Environmentalist" | 7:58 p.m. Dec. 19, 2008

The last person to move into the neighborhood.

IT BELONGS TO US ALL! | 8:00 p.m. Dec. 19, 2008

the earth can only give so much and utah ha! stewardship is a figmnent of someone's imagination, the tailings ,uranium hauling the mills and the four corners is becomming like a stench of pollution. colorado has high mercury levels, can't see the beautiful places like we use to and now they want to dump some more on land that is owned by every american , not just the locals who have done thousands of years damage for one thing ARROGANT GREED!

i CAN MAKE IT WITHOUT | 9:08 p.m. Dec. 19, 2008

Besides here's to good bye to the ignorant and arrogant that thought they had it all.

ORCA 68 | 10:37 p.m. Dec. 19, 2008

I'm assuming that many of you commenting on the protesters are Utahns. The protesters that were reported on were not breaking any laws and were exercising their rights as citizens. Just because they have a different view does not make them crazy, or idiots, etc etc. Frankly, Utah needs more of them, as it is my experience that, having lived in Utah on two occassions and during my many subsequent visits, Utah residents, as a whole, are the most environmentaly ignorant and insensitive people I have ever been around. It it weren't for the vast amount of federal land in Utah, a good portion of the state would be covered by roads, ill-planned housing developments, ranchettes, and strip malls-look at the private land within 100 miles of the Wasatch Front-what a mess. And, as a reminder, as much as you don't like to hear it, all of the public lands in Utah (Forest Service, BLM, NPS) belong no more to you than they do to any other citizen of the United States.

Only the daft | 11:27 p.m. Dec. 19, 2008

RE: ORCA 68 | 10:37 p.m. Dec. 19, 2008

The nuisance bidder was breaking the law and had no business disrupting the process. Get over yourselves! People like you aren't really interested in saving the land but really only making the lives of those who don't agree with your views miserable.

Did you take a poll to determine that Utahns are "the most environmentally ignorant insensitive people you have ever been around"? I doubt it. You are looking at the world through your ï¿½environmental strawï¿½ and fail take in any other views except your own. Yet, your ignorance proves why the environmental movement in this nation is completely out of touch with the reality of public land use.

protest your future | 12:07 a.m. Dec. 20, 2008

I wonder if these protesters realize that if they really want no further drilling and energy exploration in this country (in what is really unused and virtually unseen desert land) that they will soon no longer be able to afford to drive their cars or heat their houses?

In the mean time, lets continue to rely on foreign nations that hate us for 80% of all our oil and hold us hostage with the power to completely shut down our country!

Some people want to protest just for the sake of protesting without knowing the ignorance of their actions! I wonder if there is any medication we can give all these wacko environmentalists to help them start thinking logically again?

HSFAN | 8:18 a.m. Dec. 20, 2008

can some lib explain to me the difference between havind a big windmill and a oil well rig? And you allow those windmills right at the mouth of beautiful canyons in the city.....you Redford libs are STUPID!

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