Environmentalists and local residents defeat a proposal to open tens of thousands of acres near three Utah national parks to oil and gas drilling.
The Trump administration has canceled plans to open tens of thousands of acres for oil and gas drilling near three national parks in Utah next month, a victory for environmentalists and residents angered by its proposal.
Critics said that, under the original proposal, visitors in search of iconic views would instead be treated to a landscape crisscrossed by power lines, access roads and pipelines. In letters to the agency, local elected officials, tribal governments, environmentalists and those in the tourism business also worried about increasing air pollution and heavy truck traffic, as well as the long-term effects that more oil and gas development would have on a warming planet.
Environmental Protection Agency officials submitted a letter warning that the bureau’s environmental assessment of the lease sales pointed to the possibility ofBureau of Land Management officials on Tuesday said that, while most of the contested land would now be off-limits, they still plan to move forward with leasing more than 27,000 acres in other parts of the state.
“This particular sale highlights why the odious practice of oil and gas leasing on public lands needs to come to a halt,” he said in an emailed statement. “The proposed leases in southeast Utah were located on some of Utah’s wildest public lands, lands with at best a trivial amount of oil and gas but where development would scar the land for decades if not permanently.”
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