** Oil and gas companies want to drill within a half-mile of Utah national parks
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Thursday, March 19, 2020
The spellbinding beauty of moonrise over Balanced Rock in Arches National Park | National Park Service, Kait Thomas ([link removed])

The Trump administration is considering nominated oil and gas leases within a half-mile ([link removed]) of Utah's iconic national parks. The 230 nominations for the Bureau of Land Management's (BLM) September lease sale cover more than 150,000 acres across southern Utah.

Many of the nominations come from anonymous operators and are near to Arches and Canyonlands National Parks and Bears Ears National Monument. Development on the leases would transform the region from one known for pristine night skies and stark topography into an industry-focused landscape disturbed by methane flaring, pump-jacks, and poor air quality.

Although the BLM could still reject the nominations, the Trump administration has rushed to offer over 24 million acres ([link removed]) for oil and gas development under a system overwhelmingly tilted in favor of the oil and gas industry ([link removed]) . The system allows operators to anonymously nominate parcels, which are analyzed and offered in extensive lease sales. While some of these leases are consistent with conservation and recreation uses, many are inappropriately sited under the Trump administration; oil and gas leases and wells are often in sage-grouse habitat and migration corridors, or near popular recreation areas and vulnerable water resources.

Just a few weeks ago the BLM pulled leases slated for auction on Moab’s Slickrock Trail ([link removed]) after protests from Utah's governor and local communities, who argued the legendary mountain biking spot should be off-limits to drilling.


** Dashboard tracks oil and gas leasing
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The Center for Western Priorities has developed a dashboard ([link removed]) to track onshore oil and gas leasing under the Trump administration. The dashboard will be continuously updated, reflecting the results of oil and gas lease sales around the country. As part of the administration’s “energy dominance” agenda, tens of millions of acres have been offered up for lease, far more area than the oil and gas industry has been interested in purchasing.

Amid the COVID-19 outbreak and tumbling oil and gas prices, the oil and gas industry has asked ([link removed]) the administration to speed up drilling permits on public lands, lower royalty rates, and buy up reserves. The administration has stated it will continue offering oil and gas leases during the crisis.
Quick hits


** National Park Service suspends park entrance fees amid coronavirus outbreak
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The Hill ([link removed]) | Associated Press ([link removed]) | Jackson Hole Daily ([link removed]) | E&E News ([link removed])


** Study disproves the lie that national monuments hurt local economies
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Gizmodo ([link removed]) | Science Advances ([link removed])


** Low prices, virus cited in calls to delay oil lease sale as Trump administration pushes ahead
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Associated Press ([link removed]) | Reno Gazette Journal ([link removed]) | Huffpost ([link removed]) | E&E News ([link removed])


** Uranium mining near Grand Canyon may be impending
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Arizona Republic ([link removed])


** Oil and gas companies want to drill within a half-mile of Utah's best-known national parks
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Washington Post ([link removed])


** Western tourism and outdoor recreation industry sees layoffs
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Montana Free Press ([link removed]) | Missoulian ([link removed]) | Idaho Statesman ([link removed]) | KUER ([link removed])


** Colorado’s top oil-gas producer girds for economic fallout from coronavirus, but sees no cure for tougher law
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Denver Post ([link removed])


** Opinion: Livestock grazing doesn't considerably reduce wildfires
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Post Register ([link removed])
Quote of the day
If even a portion of these leases are sold, it would fundamentally change the nature of Utah’s Red Rock Country from an area that has internationally renowned dark night skies and natural quiet to an industrial zone.”
—Steve Bloch, Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance legal director, W ([link removed]) ashington Post ([link removed])
Picture this


** @I ([link removed]) nterior ([link removed])
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On still winter nights with no wind, hoar frost forms delicately on the cottonwoods at Seedskadee National Wildlife Refuge. The fields appear to glow in the warm sunlight #Wyoming ([link removed])

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