Interior Secretary Ken Salazar has taken action to save more than 130,000 acres of pristine Utah redrock country from oil drilling.  In halting the Bush administration’s auctioning last December of 77 parcels of land near Arches and Canyonlands National Parks, the new administration is protecting air quality in the national parks, as well as keeping pipelines, well pads, and new roads out of some of Utah’s most impressive wilderness.

     “I see this announcement as a sign that after eight long years of rapacious greed and backdoor dealings, our government is returning a sense of balance to the way it manages our lands,” said Robert Redford, actor, director, and a trustee of the Natural Resources Defense Council, an organization that, along with many others, had successfully sought a restraining order in federal court against sale of the leases.

     Anyone concerned that failure to drill in the Utah wilderness could undermine U.S. energy security will be interested to know that these lands would produce, at most, only 1.5 hours worth of the oil we use in a whole year, according to Robin Cooley, an Earthjustice attorney involved in the court action.

    I believe we can look forward to more such protective actions from Salazar.  After all, he says that President Obama has charged him with “cleaning up” the Department of the Interior.  And Salazar explains that while the vast majority of Interior employees are wonderful people who do a great job, ”the policy decisions were driven out of the White House.”    

     Indeed, Salazar’s action in Utah sends an important message about the Obama administration’s approach to preserving America’s public lands, according to Richard Moe, president of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.  “This is a great decision and indicates that Secretary Salazar and President Obama take very seriously their responsibility as stewards of our public lands,” he said.

    

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