Obama Plans to Overturn Bush Executive Orders

Environment News Service



Dirty Devil proposed wilderness in southern Utah (Photo © Ray Bloxham courtesy SUWA)


WASHINGTON, DC, - President-elect Barack Obama and his transition team are already reviewing all of President Bush's executive orders, considering which will be allowed to stand and which will be overturned, the head of his transition team, John Podesta said on Sunday. Obama's decisions could invalidate environmentally damaging orders issued by the current president.

"As a candidate, Senator Obama said that he wanted all the Bush executive orders reviewed, and decide which ones should be kept, and which ones should be repealed, and which ones should be amended," said Podesta, who served as White House chief of staff under President Bill Clinton.

"Across the board, whether it's national security, the economy, the senior leadership that will manage health care, energy and the environment, I think he intends to move very quickly," Podesta told Chris Wallace on Fox News.

"They want to have oil and gas drilling in some of the most sensitive, fragile lands in Utah that they're going to try to do right as they - walking out the door. I think that's a mistake," Podesta said.

On election day, the Bush administration announced that it will open up about 360,000 acres of Utah public lands to oil and gas drilling in its December lease sale.

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management did not publish details of the 241 proposed oil and gas parcels, but some are believed to be near national parks and monuments such as Arches National Park and Canyonlands National Park in southeastern Utah.

Preliminary site lists show the leases for sale in December would include large areas considered worthy of wilderness status.

BLM Utah State Director Selma Sierra said Thursday that the parcels "have been set aside for a number of years pending completion of resource management plans for six field offices." Five of those plans were signed by the Assistant Secretary for Land and Minerals Stephen Allred last week in Washington, triggering the leasing decisions contained in the plans.

"These decisions represent far more stringent environmental protections than existed in old plans or that have ever been imposed by any BLM Utah plan. In other words, these new environmental restrictions provide many layers of safeguards to prevent environmental damage to sensitive natural resources. So lands previously set aside are now available for leasing, but with stricter-than-ever controls," said Sierra.

But environmentalists are opposed to any further oil and gas development in the Red Rock country of southern Utah.

"The election of Barack Obama represents a new day for environmentalists..."
Scott Groene, executive director of the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, which has fought to keep oil and gas development out of wilderness areas, views the Obama presidency as "the best opportunity for wilderness protection in SUWA's 25 year history."

"We will encourage the new Secretary of Interior and staff at the Bureau of Land Management to protect southern Utah's wilderness, including such places as Labyrinth Canyon, the Dirty Devil, the San Rafael Swell and Cedar Mesa," said Groene.

Groene wants review of what he terms, "disastrous last minute Bush administration decisions for legal violations, including the six awful land use plans the administration just approved, which open millions of acres of redrock wilderness to oil and gas leasing and ORVs."

He wants the Obama administration to give "meaningful protection to the redrock, by re-instating the process, born under President Clinton and killed by the Bush administration, that gives Wilderness Study Area protection to lands identified by the BLM as having wilderness character."

His wish list includes reform of the BLM, which Groene says "manages more of our most spectacular western public lands than any other agency and which folded like a house of cards in a tornado to anti-wilderness interests under pressure from Bush appointees."

Podesta said a president can do a great deal using his executive authority without waiting for congressional action. "I think we'll see the president do that to try to restore a sense that the country is working on behalf of the common good," he said.

Environmental advocates are looking to the incoming administration with hope. Frances Beinecke, president of the Natural Resources Defense Council, said November 4, 'The election of Barack Obama represents a new day for environmentalists. His election brings an end to eight years of unrelenting assaults on the environment."

"Our staff and members are ready to work with President-elect Obama and the new Congress to advance his 'New Energy for America Plan,' which includes creating five million clean technology jobs, putting a million hybrid cars on the road, and capping carbon emissions," said Beinecke.

Podesta was one of several members of the Obama's top leaders who appeared on Sunday TV talk shows across the broadcast band.

Today President-elect Obama and Michelle Obama are meeting with President George W. and Laura Bush at the White House.

Bush administration pushing hard to open Utah lands to energy development

By Patty Henetz
The Salt Lake Tribune

The Bush administration is in its final push to open millions of acres in Utah and the West to energy development and along the way, critics warn, possibly destroy prospects for wilderness designation for thousands of acres of redrock desert.

On Friday, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management will release five of six long-range management plans that will open 80 percent of 11 million acres in southern and eastern Utah to oil and gas drilling and designate 20,000 miles of motorized recreation routes.

The actions of the lame-duck administration outrage conservationists, especially since the BLM's plans would have the force of statute for at least 10 years and would be difficult to alter.

"These [plans] are a very obvious attempt of the Bush administration to cement its legacy in Utah," said Steve Bloch, an attorney for the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance. "[They] are a road map to ruin for Utah's magnificent public lands."

And on Election Day, when citizens most likely will be focused elsewhere, the BLM will announce an oil- and gas-lease sale involving large swaths of public land considered worthy of wilderness status - including artifact-rich Nine Mile Canyon, Desolation Canyon and areas around Dinosaur National Monument.

The actual sale will be held the Friday before Christmas - "the bow atop the massive gift to the oil and gas industry we've seen for the last eight years," said Suzanne Jones, regional director of The Wilderness Society's Central Rockies office.

But the BLM is acting on order from Congress, which in 2001 decided the plans, some of them 30 years old, needed recrafting to reflect new priorities, including increased demand from oil and gas developers and explosive growth in off-road recreation.

In May, a Bush administration study re-emphasized policies established in 2005 that would speed carbon-based energy development with minimal restraints unless federal public-land managers found it "absolutely necessary" to preserve other resources. The directive urged the BLM to find ways around "obstacles" to drilling, which the administration identified as well-established environmental-protection law, municipal development, private-property concerns, wildlife and national parks.

The Moab, Kanab, Vernal, Richfield and Price district plans are now final. Only the Monticello plan remains pending, waiting for state officials to sign off.

In a Thursday announcement, the BLM called the achievement "a collaborative effort in balanced stewardship for the future" that included protections for environmentally sensitive areas while supporting energy resources.

The agency said 53 percent of the more than 8 million acres open to oil and gas leasing would be subject to stricter environmental controls than before the plans were drawn, with about 18 percent of the 11 million acres unavailable to leasing under any circumstances. Less than a half of 1 percent of the public lands would be protected for their special beauty and solitude.

The resource plans came in slightly past their Sept. 30 fiscal-year deadline and cost $35 million, said Don Ogaard, lead planner for the BLM's Utah office. Though 87 protests numbering several hundred pages were filed during a 30-day period, all of them were dismissed or resolved to the BLM's satisfaction, he said.

During public-comment periods, the plans drew fire from all sides. Oil-industry representatives complained of too many restrictions on exploration, and county officials agreed. Conservationists objected to drilling in sensitive lands and laying out so many trails for motorized recreation because OHV users represent a small minority of those who visit the area. Off-roaders disliked the new directive to close Utah's BLM lands to cross-country travel in favor of a trail system. The Environmental Protection Agency criticized the Price, Moab and Vernal plans for inadequate air-quality reviews, lack of analysis of OHV impacts and a failure to evaluate energy extraction's effects on global climate disruption.

Highlights from each area's plan

Monticello: Anasazi ruins in Cedar Mesa, Dark Canyon and Butler Wash will take a back seat to hikers, cyclists and off-roaders when the BLM eliminates protection associated with areas of critical environmental concern in favor of special-recreation designation.

Richfield: Nearly all of more than 2 million acres of public lands in six counties surrounding Richfield will be open to oil and gas drilling and off-highway recreation. OHVs will be allowed into areas of Factory Butte previously closed for endangered-species protection and wilderness-quality lands.

Price: Energy development is the top priority for 2.5 million acres in Carbon and Emery counties and that's fine with county officials who believe their share of the revenues will make possible a more diverse economy in the future. Nearly 1 million acres previously found to have wilderness traits likely won't ever be so designated.

Vernal: A public outcry about wildlife, wilderness and cultural resources in the Vernal area led federal officials to close 186,917 acres to drilling, nearly three times the amount of land the agency wanted off-limits when it released its draft plan for the Book Cliffs and the Uinta Basin a year ago.

Moab: Hiking, biking, grazing, drilling, hunting and off-roading advocates squared off over the plan for 1.8 million acres of red-rock desert near Moab, leaving the BLM to sort out solutions that satisfy few and anger many.

Kanab: The plan for 550,000 acres of public land in Kane and Garfield counties includes 1,462 miles of OHV trails. About 27,000 acres will be managed for wilderness qualities, but the fine print says the BLM would allow OHV travel across those acres, likely making them ineligible for future wilderness designation.

Pro: BLM Utah Resource Management Plans

Opinion



by Selma Sierra
BLM Utah State Director




Selma Sierra, BLM Utah State Director


The Federal Land Policy and Management Act (FLPMA) mandates that BLM manage public lands for multiple use such as outdoor recreation, livestock grazing, energy exploration and production, conservation, and timber production. Additionally, the Act establishes that BLM sustain the health, diversity and productivity of the public lands for the use and enjoyment of present and future generations. In making decisions about land use, FLPMA requires the BLM develop Resource Management Plans (RMP) and update the RMPs when circumstances change and significant new information becomes available. These important land use decision documents require public input and participation.

Here in Utah, the BLM has nearly completed the task of revising six RMPs for the Moab, Richfield, Price, Vernal, Monticello, and Kanab planning areas. It has been nearly eight years since we began the planning process, which has been one of the longest and most intensive land use planning efforts the BLM Utah has undertaken. Revisions are necessary since some of the planning areas have not updated their RMPs in 25 years. Hundreds of thousands of public comments were considered during the planning process; dozens of meetings with our partners at the county and state levels have taken place to bring us to this point.

The BLM will continue releasing Proposed RMPs and Final Environmental Impact Statements (EIS) for each of the six planning areas in the coming weeks. The BLM has balanced multiple interests and priorities, creating a management framework to guide public land decisions.

Today the public debate is dominated by the need to identify opportunities for domestic energy supplies. Domestic sources of oil, natural gas and renewable energy play an important role in our nation’s security and stability. While the proposed plans envision maintaining areas open to oil and gas leasing, they would also institute protective measures during development, such as timing limitations, best management practices and advanced technology to minimize the footprint of developing those important resources.

In addition to proposing to accommodate our pressing national needs for energy development the plans also propose protecting public lands within the six planning areas where there are sensitive natural resources, making these lands off limits to surface disturbing activities, unavailable to oil and gas leasing or other restrictions. This type of protection would extend to almost one million acres of public land, in addition to nearly two million acres of existing wilderness study areas.

Regarding outdoor recreation, the plans consider opportunities for primitive recreation and managing certain lands in Utah to maintain, protect and enhance public land natural areas. In addition, BLM Utah proposes focusing off-highway vehicle (OHV) use to designated roads and trails. Social changes, chiefly the growing popularity of OHVs and population growth, have created a need to more closely manage this type of recreation.

BLM recognizes the value public lands hold for local communities and their economies. We have maintained a focus on supporting communities, their growth and diverse needs while maintaining national priorities and objectives, all within the context of BLM’s multiple use mandate. As State Director, I will continue to honor the integral role that the BLM and the land we manage plays in the livelihood and economies of local communities as we move forward to complete these vital planning proposals.

Con: BLM Utah Resource Management Plans

No management plan: BLM makes gift of land to off-roaders, drillers

Editorial
Salt Lake Tribune

It's an off-roader's dream: a federal management plan making nearly 2 million acres of public land a playground for off-highway vehicles. The Bureau of Land Management's proposal for the BLM lands in six Utah counties is also a gift tied with a big red ribbon and handed to oil and gas developers.

But it can hardly be called "management," especially the type of multiple-use management and land conservation the BLM is charged to provide for the Western lands owned by all Americans. By opening up 90 percent of the area to OHV use and 80 percent to drilling, the plan effectively excludes quiet recreation - mountain biking, hiking and backpacking - and sacrifices scenic vistas, wildlife habitat, and cultural treasures including archaeological ruins, relics and rock art.

This is not multiple use, but an attempt in the waning months of the Bush administration to remove public lands protections. The BLM, in approving this management plan for the Richfield area spread over Sanpete, Sevier, Piute, Wayne, Garfield and Kane counties, has taken the side of motorized recreation and energy development in the battle for some of the last untrammeled open spaces in the state.

The BLM is saying it will not protect endangered species and wilderness-quality areas from irresponsible OHV use that has already scarred public lands, caused erosion, disturbed the migratory habits and habitat of wildlife and dirtied creeks and streams. It will not limit the destruction of Richfield-area public lands caused by energy developers who cut roads, haul equipment and erect drill rigs on some of the most scenic places in Utah.

The plan would diverge from the BLM's own policy by allowing OHVs in areas of Factory Butte now closed by the BLM to protect two endangered plant species. The normal procedure would prevent reopening the area until the plants have rebounded, but this management proposal is anything but normal.

The Federal Land Policy and Management Act requires the BLM to "sustain the health, diversity and productivity of the public lands for the use and enjoyment of present and future generations." This plan ignores that mandate.

The mountains, rivers and forests comprising 2 million acres will be taken over by noisy, exhaust-spewing OHVs and greedy energy developers, eliminating the possibility that their wilderness qualities could be preserved for future generations. To them, we'll be known as the idiot generation.