Citing the proximity of certain parcels to landscapes of national significance and the need to conduct additional environmental review, Interior Secretary Ken Zalazar Wednesday said the federal government will cancel producer leases to develop oil and natural gas on 130,000 acres of public lands in Utah. His action overturns the results of a final oil and gas lease auction held in the final days of the Bush administration.

“I have directed the BLM [Bureau of Land Management] not to accept bids on…77 parcels” that are in “close proximity” to Arches and Canyonlands national parks, Dinosaur National Monument and Nine Mine Canyon, he said. “We will take time and take a fresh look at these 77 parcels and determine whether they are appropriate for oil and gas development.”

Producers bid about $6 million on the 77 parcels that were auctioned off during a BLM sale on Dec. 19. The bid money will be returned to producers, Salazar said. All told, producers at the December auction spent $7.37 million in bids to develop 149,000 acres on 116 parcels (see Daily GPI, Dec. 22, 2008).

Salazar said the environmental review of the disputed parcels “was from our point of view not complete,” and “I have concerns about the degree of consultation and the time of that consultation with the National Park Service” with respect to the December auction. “There are other important factors that should have been considered in that review, including the factors of air quality and impact of development on air quality in the vicinity of the parks. These are real issues and the U.S. District Court has agreed these are real issues.”

The day following the auction, a federal judge in Washington, DC granted a temporary restraining order to seven environmental groups. He ruled that the Department of Interior had not completed a sufficient environmental analysis, particularly on how air quality around Utah’s Arches and Canyonlands national parks and Dinosaur National Monument might become degraded because of drilling (see Daily GPI, Jan. 21).

“The Bush administration rushed ahead to sell oil and gas leases at the doorstep of some of our nation’s icons, some of our nation’s most treasured landscapes” in Utah, Salazar said.

He noted that the Obama administration was currently reviewing a number of “midnight” decisions by the Bush administration, which “[were] rushed without going through proper environmental review.” He indicated that the Utah auction was “only one of a dozen or so” of such cases being reviewed, and said more announcements possibly overturning Bush-era decisions would come in the days and weeks ahead.

Salazar declined to comment on whether staff or other changes would be made at the Utah offices, which carried out the auction.

He also confirmed that the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Utah is continuing its criminal investigation of a 27-year-old University of Utah student and self-styled environmental activist who disrupted the BLM’s oil and gas auction. Tim DeChristopher threw the auction into disarray by bidding on parcels with no intention of buying them and forcing producers to bid more for sought-after acreage. He was taken into custody by federal agents and later released (see Daily GPI, Dec. 23, 2008).

As for expanded leasing in the federal Outer Continental Shelf (OCS), Salazar said “we are looking at the offshore issue, which is very much on the table” because of the recently issued five-year leasing plan (see Daily GPI, Jan. 20). “As President Obama has said, we believe that the OCS is a place where there may be appropriate locations for exploration and development. At this point we simply are in the process of reviewing what kind of changes ought to be made.”

©Copyright 2009Intelligence Press Inc. All rights reserved. The preceding news reportmay not be republished or redistributed, in whole or in part, in anyform, without prior written consent of Intelligence Press, Inc.