Interior Secretary Salazar Halts Oil and Gas Development at 60 Public Sites in Utah

Late last week, U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar countered the "drill, baby, drill" mantra of many energy executives and congressional Republicans with the equivalent of "chill, baby, chill" when he announced that he was blocking development on 60 of 77 controversial oil and gas leases that cover about 130,000 acres of public land in Utah.

The 77 contested leases--valued at $6 million--were rushed through the approval process in the waning days of the Bush presidency; challenged immediately by conservation groups that were concerned they would destroy critical wildlife habitat, compromise air quality and spoil one of the nation's premier scenic areas; and put on hold in January when a federal judge ruled that the Bush Interior Department had failed to follow its own procedures for reviewing and approving oil and gas drilling on public lands.

Once he was confirmed as Interior Secretary, Salazar assigned a team to review the lease requests and report back. The review team recommended allowing drilling to proceed in 17 of the 77 locations--reapproving those leases would require the Interior Department to follow established law as well as any additional guidelines imposed by the federal court in January--and said that 52 proposed leases should be studied further due to concerns about air, water and noise pollution and potential threats to wildlife.

The team also strongly advised Salazar to withdraw eight of the 77 locations from consideration altogether and said they should never be leased for oil and gas development, because they are too close to scenic wonders such as Arches National Park, Canyonlands National Park and Dinosaur National Monument as well as other popular recreational areas along the Colorado River.

In accepting his team's recommendations, Salazar said on-site investigation revealed that officials in the Utah office of the Bureau of Land Management, who oversaw the original sale of the leases, were operating under the false belief that energy priorities should always override environmental and recreational needs.

"There is no such preference for the use of the land," Salazar told reporters.

Salazar's decision was praised by environmentalists and condemned by energy trade groups, who accused him of everything from undermining U.S. energy security to extending unemployment and the recession.

"The policy positions of the department over the last eight years have really been driven out of the White House, and we're looking at many of those decisions," Salazar said in a telephone call with reporters last week. "I believe, as President Obama does, that we need to responsibly develop our oil and gas supplies to help us reduce our dependence on foreign oil, but we must do so in a thoughtful and balanced way."

The Washington Post reported Salazar's decision about the Utah oil and gas leases as "one of a series of steps that the new administration and congressional Democrats are planning to reshape federal regulation of drilling, mining, lumbering and other resource-tapping activities, both on U.S. soil and offshore." It's a valuable insight, and one that could provide important context for past and future actions by the Obama administration.

During his first few months as Interior Secretary, Salazar has already halted plans for extended offshore oil drilling, placed a temporary hold on mining near the Grand Canyon, and joined with U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke to slap down a last-minute rule imposed by the Bush administration, which would have gutted the Endangered Species Act and ended vital protections for threatened and endangered species. And this week the House Natural Resources Committee will kick off a series of hearings on offshore drilling and start working with Salazar and the Department of Interior to revise existing policies on the practice.

Meanwhile, Salazar is reviewing a rule that would increase U.S. oil shale development, studying pending lease sales on federal lands in the Western United States, and working on land-management plans for states like Colorado and Wyoming that contain valuable natural resources as well as irreplaceable wilderness areas, critical habitat, and threatened or endangered species.

Also Read:

• Salazar Opposes Drilling Near National Parks -- About.com: National & State Parks
• Interior Secretary Places Temporary Ban on Mining Near Grand Canyon
• Obama Administration Revokes Last-Minute Bush Assault on Endangered Species Act
• Salazar Halts Bush Plan for Expanded Offshore Drilling
• Barack Obama on Offshore Drilling