LAT: Recasting Wilderness as Open for Business(wilderness protection dead)

[DeepModem Mom]

A CHANGING LANDSCAPE
Recasting Wilderness as Open for Business
A Bush administration policy reversal ends decades of shielding the nation's untamed areas.

By Henry Weinstein, Times Staff Writer


Increased oil drilling is expected on the 2.6 million acres in Utah no longer off-limits to development. (Bryan Chan / LAT)


PRICE, Utah — The sculpted buttes of Wild Horse Mesa, the vast escarpment of the Book Cliffs and the soaring ramparts of Upper Desolation Canyon near here have become a prime battleground in the Bush administration's campaign to curb wilderness protection throughout the country.

In 1999, the federal government acknowledged the unique character of the area, where 150 million years of the earth's geologic history unfolds and the forces of nature continue to shape the rugged landscape. The Bureau of Land Management put more than 440,000 acres off-limits to industrial development.

The protection was short-lived.

Within four years, the area was opened to oil and gas exploration. Under the Bush administration, 2.6 million acres of Utah land that had been shielded from development were suddenly open for business.

The actions were part of a sweeping policy shift by Interior Secretary Gale A. Norton with implications far beyond Utah. Not only does the new policy cancel protection of the Utah land, it withholds the interim safeguards traditionally applied to areas with wilderness potential until Congress decides whether to make them part of the national wilderness system.

But what most distinguishes the administration's position is its claim that under applicable law the Interior Department is barred — FOREVER — from identifying and protecting wild land the way it has for nearly 30 years....


http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-wild25oct25,1,3791084.story?coll=la-home-headlines

[cornermouse]

1. Time for a new President and a new alternative energy policy.

[pinniped]

2. Obviously major changes have to be made when John Kerry takes over.

He can start by firing that piece of shit EPA mole along with every other * appointee. I hope those assholes have their resumes ready.

------But what most distinguishes the administration's position is its claim that under applicable law the Interior Department is barred — FOREVER — from identifying and protecting wild land the way it has for nearly 30 years....------

[izzie]

3. And you can not fish off Walker's Point. Nice to one of the few rich

If the people let them get away with this they are to blame. Let them see the White Wts. after they open it up with all those rich GOP who have homes there or ski there. Or near there.

[Eloriel]

4. Kick

:kick:

[DeepModem Mom]

5. Kicking to remind us of one reason we're fighting for Kerry --