Stopping Bush's Destruction of Our Environment
Democracy is working. At least that's the news for now from my friends at the Natural Resources Defense Council, which has filed a lawsuit against last-minute Bush administration plans to lease huge swaths of majestic wilderness in Utah for oil and gas extraction.
Late last night, NRDC and a coalition of environmental and preservation groups filed an agreement with the Bureau of Land Management that could save 100,000 acres of pristine land that are endangered. The deal temporarily prevents the Bureau from issuing leases on 80 contested parcels of Utah wilderness, including land adjacent to national parks, for 30 days (until January 19).
Although the Bureau will go forward with the auction today, based on the agreement it will not issue the contested leases. The delay will give a federal court time to hear the case.
As I've written previously, 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.
Utah's Red Rock country 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?
The Bureau's agreement has delayed the potential destruction. We will now get our day in court and I know that NRDC, the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (SUWA) and their partners will continue to do all they can to protect Utah's unspoiled landscapes.
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See Geoffrey Dunn's Profile
Hey, Bob. It's easy to bash Bush on the environment. Why don't you use your considerable clout and stand up to Barack Obama and say, hey, your picks at Agriculture and Interior are not acceptable to environmentalists? This is the moment for CHANGE we all worked for, and now we're getting more of the same. If I wanted a Republican in the Defense Department, I would have voted for McCain. If I wanted a bunch of Clinton retreads, I would have voted for Hillary. What I want are people in Obama's leadership positions who support a green America and a green world. Not chemical agriculture hacks and coal company apologists. If we don't speak out now, we will be shut out the rest of the way. Obama is turning his back on progressives--just like a dog that licks his proverbial privates--because he can.
Mr. Dunn, it seems that most applauded the picks of experienced people who voiced their willingness to follow a new leader in dealing with this ongoing climate change, otherwise, there was no need for them to accept the nominations. It is clear that Obama plans on providing the right attitude which will reflect on those he has chosen to carry out his vision and achieve his goals. If they do not support his program, they will be gone. There are a lot of people that he could have picked but he is trying to include those that already govern due to the expediency of the tasks before him. I see nothing wrong with his tactics, but I do see something wrong with your nasty and bigoted comment relating the President Elect to a "dog," as well as, speculating about his privates because you can. Rest assured you become part of the problem when you denigrade those trying to actually do something by making vulgar, polluting comments about someone who has done nothing to you, who has yet to even begin his own job, let alone those he has chosen to fill jobs.
Well put.
Yep.
I am not sure that Salazar from Colorado is the one to perserve the enviornment or restore it. And Obama is more about appeasing these days, that changing.
Seems like you need to eat the whole pie Mr. Dunn?
Why not try having a piece first?
Shame, shame and shame. Why don't you report on Bush?!
Yesterday, in a brave act of civil disobedience, Tim Dechristopher threw a Monkey Wrench into one of the Bush Administration's parting shots at environmentalist and the American people.
Please go and thank him here.
http://oneutah.org/2008/12/20/thank-you-tim-dechristopherthank-you-tim-dechristopher/
"He didn't pour sugar into a bulldozer's gas tank. He didn't spike a tree or set a billboard on fire. But wielding only a bidder's paddle, a University of Utah student just as surely monkey-wrenched a federal oil- and gas-lease sale Friday, ensuring that thousands of acres near two southern Utah national parks won't be opened to drilling anytime soon. "
What a kool story. Thanks for posting that; everyone go and thank Tim for putting his neck on the line for you and all Americans.
How simple. Brilliant. Why is it no one thought of this before.
Thank you, Tim.
Actually, I posted a similar idea in response to Robert Redford's piece which appeared on December 17th. At the eleventh hour, Redford asked us to "Stand Up Against Bush's Giveaway of America's Redrock Wilderness." He asked us to send an email to register our opposition to the auctioning of the leases. Probably no one, including Robert Redford, really thought that sending emails would help, but many of us did it anyway because we felt we had to do SOMETHING. In my post I suggested that environmental groups should quickly unify (what a concept!) and bid the leases into the stratosphere in order to disrupt the process until after Obama takes office.
Tim DeChristopher stood up. He performed his act of civil disobedience on his own without the backing of any environmental organization or advice from lawyers. What a brave thing to do. Thank you, Tim! You are a hero!
They removed the page.
Driving east towards Green River country is like living in a oil landscape painting.
It is beautiful...soak it up but for gosh sakes don't stop or sign anything.
Thank you, thank you, thank you...and may the vision we hold...bring out the best within ourselves, within others, and within the very Soul of our beloved planet. Warmest regards, Robert.
Go Bob!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thank you for continuing to put your voice out there. This country has suffered mightily from the greed of the few. For far too long money has trumped everything else of real value in our society.
Why are there people who are so willing to destroy something of lasting value to the American nation for short-term profit?? I cannot nor will I ever understand these people and W's legacy to his nation will also be an oil slick on our history.
Keep up the good work, Sundance. I only wish Butch were still here standing beside you.
Thank you Robert for your efforts to keep our nation safe from a President for whom the true god is the "bottom line."
Amen!
Bush has committed war crimes, sold out this country to for money, and bankrupted this country and forced its slaves -- oops, citizens-- to transfer their wealth to his WSJ political supporters. And yet, he's still running around free as a bird, as if none of those things happened. Blagojevich, whose crimes are far smaller, is being held more accountable than Bush. Don't get me wrong, someone should haul the brown haired mop top to prison on the basis of the audio tapes alone, but where is the justice? Can we expect anymore than what we've gotten from a man who stole the 2000 election? Is there anything anyone can do regarding the already sold/leased lands? Is there anything anyone can do on the Federal level to stop him? Where is Congress in all this?
There are more people enslaved today than there ever has been in the history of the world. How's that for modern progress? What people fail to realize is that those who oppress other's end up being the ones actually enslaved, either by police action, their enemies, or their own minds, ie., Bush, Cheney, Blagojevich, Madoff, OJ, see what I mean. A real man of virtue never allows himself to be bought or bossed into doing the wrong thing.
Right now, We the people of America DO have a chance to send bush and cheney to the
world court in the haig and tried as war criminals.
I'm concerned the lack of a T.R.O. from the court blocking the auctions leaves the gaining party with a cause of action to claim costs against the Gov. if they are ultimately stopped from exercising their rights granted under the lease.
The council for the moving party should have partitioned the Fed. Court for a Temporary Restraining Order, (TRO) blocking the first instance auction. It appears on it's face to meet all the criteria for same. Most especially, the likelihood of irreparable harm and the unique nature of the subject property being not monetarily compensatory.
I am concerned that the agreement struck by the dept. lacks good faith as it allowed the auction to proceed and set a date prior to the ability of the new administration to intervene.
Nonetheless Bob, your work, along with a host of others is showing some fruit in bring attention and most importantly action, towards bringing to a halt, the wholesale heist of yet another piece of the fabric of America!
Thank you, and I remain, at your service
Pierre
George W. Bush & Dick Cheney need to be tried as criminals and imprisoned for the rest of their sorry lives. I'm so sick of the damage and insanity these men and their administration have caused and are still causing. What a huge mess Barack will have to clean up.
See all the RULES Bush is pushing thru -- the environment is the most important part of the equation; without it we can't continue living on the planet.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeff-schweitzer/not-home-yet-the-terrible_b_148979.html
Yes, and these acts are buried in the deepest part of the media..and hardly ever see daylight. It is people like Robert Redford and Bobby Kennedy Jr and the various enviornmental groups that try so hard to keep these betrayals in front of us. The media doesn't care, Bush is a sociopath and does it because he can...in the cover of dark behind closed doors. He has done so much damage in 8 years it can't be measured.
To see all of the RULES this administration is pushing thru read Jeff Schweitzer's Dec 8th article in the Huffington Post. Hopefully, O can come up with a way to reverse these once he is in office; or come up with a RULE (law) that punishes severly anyone trying to make use of Bush's CARNAGE. It's a shame only someone important can step up and do something about what is going on, but Utah is not the only spot on Bush's list...voice your opinion loud and clear please by going to http://my.barackobama.com and/or http://change.gov/
To many, this is nothing new. The Bush Admin has continually failed to express any
"true" concern for the environment; even up to this date:
The Bush Environmental Record: More than 300 Crimes against Nature [09/2004]
http://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/200409/bush_record_print.asp
The Bush Administration's Environmental Record
http://www.historycommons.org/project.jsp?project=bush_enviro_record
Bush's Environmental Record
http://www.foxriverwatch.com/nrda/bush_record.html
Seven Years of Failure: Bush gets an F for the Earth [04/2008]
http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2008/04/environment_timeline.html
60 Percent Of EPA Staff Have ‘Personally Experienced’ ‘Political Interference’ [04/2008]
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/04/23/epa-staff-survey/
Bush officials moving fast to cut environmental protections [11/2008]
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/227/story/55441.html
2008 National Environmental Scorecard http://www.lcv.org/scorecard//]
Seems most "Red States" get a low score for environmental issues.
On a side note (to Bush's abysmal environmental record), wasn't Red Rock where Sonny
Steele released the horse in the movie "The Electric Horseman"..?
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