"You can't make new wilderness."

[geekchick]

Oil and Gas Hold the Reins in the Wild West
Land-Use Decisions Largely Favor Energy Industry

The Jack Morrow Hills draft plan, for example, calls for opening about 63 percent of the land for gas and oil leases. In New Mexico's Otero Mesa region, a new management plan would allow drilling in about 94 percent of land that is home to herds of pronghorn antelopes, prairie dogs and the nation's largest stands of Chihuahuan desert grasses.

In central Utah's Price district, a newly released draft plan would lift restrictions on 77 percent of the district's 2.5 million acres, including more than a million acres that had been proposed for federal wilderness protection in the 1990s.
[...]

Energy industry officials counter that their desire to drill is in keeping with the part of the law that requires "multiple use" of BLM lands. Fuller, of the petroleum trade association, says environmentalists fight over every acre, scenic or not. "We're not talking about parks," he said.

"We're not talking about parks". Except, of course, when they are.

Comments

[hopeforyou.livejournal.com]

Gah. This isn't about things being scenic or not. This is about protecting the environment. Including the wildlife.

Wankers.

[geekchick]

I like the part where someone whines about how this is reversing Clinton's "unfair, top-down policies". Top-down policies are of course okay if they're for something you're in favor of, but not if it's something that will prevent you from making money.

Feh.

[patgreene.livejournal.com]

Sigh. Given GWB's environmental record in Texas, his administration's environmental stances are completely predictable.

Still depressing, though.

[geekchick]

No, not surprising, but definitely depressing.

[amylgam.livejournal.com]

It's not about protecting the environment *or* preserving the scenery. It's about who's in control--and a lot of people don't like the federal government in control, which is what designating more wilderness area does. If the federal government tried to assert as much control over the eastern commonwealths as it does over the western states, there would be a huge uproar.

I used to live in the "Price District" and work for the BLM. Some of the areas they're looking at protecting aren't priceless, untouched areas that preserve the local [insert your favorite environmental argument here]. They're places that were settled by pioneers, areas that people have had access to for hundreds of years.

As far as the gas and oil (and coal, we can't forget coal) argument goes, I think the biggest tragedy is that the lease prices for these areas are so low. No private land owner would let their resources go for so low, but the federal government? Sure, why not. If they'd just raise the lease prices to a reasonable level, there wouldn't be nearly as much of a gold rush.