Salazar revokes oil leases

DENVER – Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said Thursday that only 17 of 77 oil and gas leases on Utah public lands that the Bush administration auctioned off in December are valid and that his agency will prevent development on the remaining parcels, at least in the near future.

Salazar spoke at a Washington news conference to announce the findings of a report he commissioned earlier this year on the parcels, which became the subject of a fierce controversy during the waning days of Bush’s presidency.

Environmentalists contended the auction of drilling rights on 100,000 acres of federal land in southeastern Utah were a last-minute giveaway to the energy industry. The environmentalists won a restraining order from a federal judge halting the sales.

Salazar revoked most of the leases upon entering office and said his staff would study which were appropriate. On Thursday, he said the review found that few were.

“There was a headlong rush to leasing in the prior administration,” Salazar said. “There were areas that should not have been leased.”

He said that eight of the parcels should never be leased and the remainder could be leased someday after additional review and regulations. The problematic parcels included lands within view of Arches and Canyonlands national parks.

The report found that people in the Bureau of Land Management’s Utah office, which oversaw the sales, believed that energy concerns should override environmental or recreational ones.

Environmental groups hailed the report’s findings but cautioned that even if the Obama administration wants to rebid the 17 leases it found appropriate, that it will need to follow procedures laid down by the federal judge.

“The report is a resounding rejection of the drill here, drill now approach of the Bush administration,” said Steve Bloch of the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance.