Stand Up To Bush's Last Minute Destruction In Utah

[Mrs. Sharon B. Hodge]

Stand Up To Bush's Last Minute Destruction In Utah


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Part of the change Americans just voted for in overwhelming numbers was to move away from the failed energy philosophy of "drill, baby, drill" to a more farsighted strategy, emphasized by Barack Obama, based on clean, renewable energy and efficiency. Yet on the very day that we raised our voices for change, the Bush administration dragged us in the opposite direction.


The Bureau of Land Management cynically chose November 4 to announce a last-minute plan to lease huge swaths of majestic wilderness in eastern Utah for oil and gas extraction, one month before President-elect Obama takes office.


As its clock runs out, the Bush administration also is trying to open-up drilling all over the Rockies and Alaska, to green-light oil shale leasing, and to weaken the Endangered Species Act. Though sad, it's no surprise, coming as it does from the same crowd that designed a misguided national energy policy in secret meetings with the oil, gas, and coal industries.


The BLM didn't just try to slip the audacious Utah lease maneuver past the American people on an historic election day, it actually hid the ball from its sister agency, the National Park Service, and then rejected the Service's request for more time to review the scheme.


Among the 360,000 acres to be auctioned for industrial development is pristine land near Canyonlands National Park, adjacent to Arches National Park and Dinosaur National Monument. This Christmas gift to the dirty fuel industry includes parts of Desolation Canyon, named in 1869 by the explorer John Wesley Powell, which has been proposed for national park status. In fact, the BLM itself described Desolation Canyon nine years ago as "a place where a visitor can experience true solitude - where the forces of nature continue to shape the colorful, rugged landscape.
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Words alone cannot do justice to the beauty of these places, but they do capture the absurdity of the Bush plan. Oil and gas drilling in Desolation Canyon? Industrial development along the meandering Green River? The thought makes one wince.


It took millions of years to create the delicate sandstone arches and swirling crimson towers that rise over southern Utah's Redrock Wilderness. First, an ancient sea left behind salt deposits; then, the wind began wearing the deposits away until fantastical redrock shapes emerged. Even the fragile soils that ring the towers took thousands of years to adapt to the extreme desert environment. Now, these soils sustain antelope, bighorn sheep and bursts of spring wildflowers.


But it takes only a matter of days to destroy this delicate balance. When the Bush administration allowed 50,000-pound "thumper trucks" to crash through the desert in search of oil and gas in 2002, scientists said up to 300 years might be needed for the soils to recover from the damage. Permanent energy development - which would deface the desert with a network of roads and pipelines, towering wells and pumps and massive waste pits - would be even more devastating. And the rapid growth of essentially unmanaged off-road vehicle use also presents an enormous threat to the spectacular national treasures of this region.


On January 19, the day before leaving office, the Bush administration plans to issue oil and gas leases on some of Utah's - and America's - most fragile landscapes. The highest bidders on these lands will get to turn hundreds of thousands of acres of pristine wilderness into industrial wastelands.


The Obama transition team already has signaled its opposition to the leases, and said that once in office, the Obama administration will try to reverse them. Let's hope that's possible. Utah's eastern expanse is one of America's few remaining wilderness treasures. It's our land, it's our legacy, but will it still be here for our children and grandchildren? We made our wishes about that known loudly and clearly on election day.


We voted to take control of our own destiny by breaking our addiction to dirty fuels. We voted to re-power America with clean energy from wind, solar, and geothermal power. We voted to use of our greatest resource, American ingenuity, to build economic, energy, and climate security, and to preserve our natural heritage. Yes we did. And yes, we can.


Tell the Bush administration to take Utah wilderness lands off the auction block for good!

by Robert Redford

Robert Redford, an actor, director and environmental activist, is a Trustee of the Natural Resources Defense Council and is the founder of Sundance, in Utah.


Update: Go to NRDC's BioGems website to take online action to save America's Redrock wilderness:

http://www. nrdconline. org/campaign/biogems_redrock_1108
http://www. savebiogems. org/......