Bush Flips off National Park Services as he Exits the Building
In all the hoopla following the election, this story kind of slipped under a lot of radars. Rachel Maddow picked up on it yesterday. On November 7 the New York Times wrote:
The Bureau of Land Management has expanded its oil and gas lease program in eastern Utah to include tens of thousands of acres on or near the boundaries of three national parks, according to revised maps published this week. National Park Service officials say that the decision to open lands close to Arches National Park and Dinosaur National Monument and within eyeshot of Canyonlands National Park was made without the kind of consultation that had previously been routine.
The inclusion of the new lease tracts angered environmental groups, which were already critical of the bureau’s original lease proposal, made public this fall, because they said it could lead to industrial activity in empty areas of the state, some prized for their sweeping vistas, like Desolation Canyon, and others for their ancient petroglyphs, like Nine Mile Canyon.
The bureau’s new maps, made public on Election Day, show not just those empty areas but 40 to 45 new areas where leasing will also be allowed.
The tracts will be sold at auction on Dec. 19, the last lease sale before President Bush leaves office a month later. The new leases were added after a map of the proposed tracts was given to the National Park Service for comment this fall. The proximity of industrial activity concerns park managers, who worry about the impact on the air, water and wildlife within the park, as well as the potential for noise, said Michael D. Snyder, a regional director of the Park Service who is based in Denver.
As they said, the leases are scheduled to be sold at auction on December 19. As the Times articles notes, if the leases are sold and delivered to the buyers before the inauguration there will little, if anything, the new administration can do about it. The Bush administration’s calloused end around of the National Park Service in this decision pretty much sums up the “Drill, drill, drill” mantra of the (not so) Grand Old Party these days.
Posted by marindenver on 11/25/08 at 03:47 PM • Permalink
