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.

Comments

[JTyroler]

Mr. Redford, I hate to contradict you, but democracy is not working as long as George W. Bush is President of the United States of America. As long as he uses signing statements and any other method of claiming his word is law, democracy in this nation is in trouble.

[booker52]

Here in Utah we had a student with a bidding paddle who outbid the real bidding who put a stop to some leases here in Utah. Love it. He had no intentions of buying but real intentions of hosing the bidding and he did!! On ten lots, really pissed the gov off. Too bad, I love it and so did alot of others here in Utah who thought that when GWB open this land up for sale it sucked.

Here is the link to the story in the Salt Lake City tribune
http://www.sltrib.com/ci_11274601

[RussellH]

Perhaps we can petition Obama to award young DeChritopher The Medal of Freedom---someone who deserves it unlike the Wolfowitz cabal!

[easarsfield]

Finally some good news!

Hopefully Bush will not be allowed to push this through. He's done enough damage abroad, we don't need him destroying our natural treasures here at home during his final days of office.

[JEP57]

I agree that beautiful wilderness areas in the public domain should be left alone and not spoiled. So until solar, wind, and other alternative sources of energy become feasible on a mass basis in a few decades, I hope you agree Robert, that we need to drill offshore or build more nuclear power plants to meet our present needs. Unless you want to keep purchasing oil from the volatile middle east, we have no choice.

[Benevolus]

This is absolutely true. The realists need to start making decisions. We need to get aggressive to switch over but we are still a few years away and we MUST get off of foreign oil.

A new electric grid is essential to everything. Until we have one we are a slave to oil.

[KarelS]

Can we put the nuclear wastes in your backyard? By the way, how big is your back yard 'cause there's about a gaszillion gallons of this waste stored away.
I know! We can put the stuff near your drinking water facility! That should show everyone who's against Nuk-u-lar energy just how patriotic you and JEP57 are!

[Luigi53102]

The most effective "alternative source" has always been available, and its always been feasible. Its called conservation. It is the least expensive and most environmentally benign method of reducing reliance on undesirable energy sources. Its the incredibly powerful tool that has helped cut the price of gasoline by over 50% in a few short months. We'll still be waiting for the effect of offshore oil drilling over a year from now.

And if you're looking for Robert Redford to support the building of nuclear power plants, I have a strong feeling that you're looking in the wrong place.

[wilder5121]

Thanks again, Robert. Yesterday's results:

Salt Lake City, Utah—December 19, 2008—The Bureau of Land Management held its quarterly oil and gas lease sale today. Although bidding was stopped for a short period of time, the lease sale was completed. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management Special Agents detained two registered bidders. Agents are conducting an investigation and coordinating with the U.S. Attorney’s Office into the possibility that federal offenses were committed by these bidders in an apparent effort to impede the bidding process. For questions regarding this investigation, please contact Melody Rydalch at the U.S. Attorney’s office at [phone].

At the sale, the BLM sold 116 of the 131 offered parcels, totaling 148,598 acres of federal land located in Carbon, Duchesne, Emery, Garfield, Grand, San Juan and Uintah Counties at the Utah quarterly oil and gas lease sale conducted today at the BLM Utah State Office in Salt Lake City. During the oral auction, BLM received $7,234,577.50 in bonus bids for the federal oil and gas lease rights. In addition to the bonus bids, the sale netted $222,951 in rental fees and $16,240 in administrative fees, for $7,473,768.50 in total revenues from this lease sale.

Enduring Resources, LLC of Denver, CO submitted the highest total bid per acre and the highest total bid per parcel on parcel 137containing 2,194.46 acres in the Vernal Field Office. The total bid per acre was $270 for a total amount of $592,650 on the parcel.

[Benevolus]

Enough with the Bush bashing. He is gone. He was an incompetent failure, but these are new times. Bashing him does nothing to help the environment. Great people don't blame others, they fix things.

The country needs to raise the gas tax gradually to pay for a new electric grid and start driving hybrid electric-gas cars that are powered by clean coal.

You can't ever totally get off of oil, but if we can just get the hybrid electric-gas cars rolled out that would be a huge start.

Enough with this ethanol crap too. It does nothing to help the environment.

[ScooterLiddy]

Bush is engaged in a last minute attempt to destroy as much of our environment and environmental laws as he can before he leaves office. Robert Redford is doing us a great service in showing how we can stop the Bush crime family. Sorry if you voted for Bush. Sounds like you did. So sorry for you. You have a lot of regrets.

[Benevolus]

I never have voted for Bush or anyone like him. I worked for Kerry and Obama.

Unlike you kool-aid drinkers, I believe in getting things done, not blaming people. I certainly don't just go making stupid statements that somebody must have voted for somebody without knowing anything about the person.

You people that judge people and know nothing about what you are talking about are not going to take over the Democratic Party. Thank goodness Obama doesn't cave into you narrow minded people.

The party needs to think about big solutions instead of just worrying about a lease here or a lease there.

Courageous people would be calling for a gas tax increase and sacrifice, not just telling us about how a group filed a lawsuit to save some land.

Obama could easily make these areas a national park or historic land and kill the deals anyway.

We need bold people with real solutions, instead we keep getting celebrities that like patting themselves on the back.

[easarsfield]

I completely disagree.

Bush ought to be drawn and quartered. Let him serve as the ultimate example that our country will no longer tolerate leaders with self-serving agendas. Maybe if Ford hadn't let Nixon off so easy we could have been spared these clowns we've had in office the past 8 years. I'm only 25 and I'm worried that my grandchildren will still be trying to clean up the mess this administration has left in it's wake.

[tangerinesong]

easers,

If this is your take on this, please put this into context of this same degree of disappointment American’s have experienced from outgoing Presidents for the last say 60 or so years. This would mean that Bush would have company from both sides of the isle with Truman (Nagasaki/­Hiroshima) being the first skinned then Johnson (500,000 dead Americans/Viet Nam), Nixon (Watergate), just to name a few to get the conveyer belt moving.

TS

[Benevolus]

I am glad you live in your own little world. Us serious people live in the real world. Bush was terrible but it isn't like you can do anything about it.

Ford should have pardoned Nixon for the good of the country. Also, there is no connection with Nixon and Bush. Nixon actually did a few good things. He was a lunatic, but Nixon was a great President of the environment, even if his actions were for political reasons. Bush didn't seem to care about anything but Bush and his friends.

America is a forward looking country, that is what has made it great. People that live in the past are not great leaders.

Obama understands you gain nothing by complaining about the past.

[tangerinesong]

Benevolus,

Could not have said this better myself.

I think I can speak for 250 or so million politically exhausted Americans. Bush is gone. There is nothing he can do in the last minutes of his presidency egregious enough that would or could endure. Let’s now look forward and focus positive energy and performance into the support of Barack Obama’s new administration.

You see if there was nothing one could do in changing Bush's mind in the last eight years why does one think we can do so now in the remaining days of his administration other than to banter around more negativity of which we’ve all had quite enough. Again, Bush has not listened for the last eight years. We're not going to change any decisions he makes these last days so why heap on us all this type of negativity when Barack will be in the Oval in a matter of a few weeks. Bush has been beaten like a dead horse and here we are kicking this miserable carcass once again, ruining shoes to no avail. Exercise in futility I say.

Let’s just move this country in a positive direction with Barack and leave the old in our rear view mirror.....This Inauguration will be spectacular and I will be there.

TS

[ConfuciusSay-]

Bush is still your president. And there's time enough for locusts.

[ThermoChemist]

[a] "Enough with the Bush bashing. He is gone."

Unfortunately, we're STILL stuck with him for another month. Are we supposed to just look the other way and have him do whatever he feels like without any formal rebuttals and/or actions...? I think not..!

"...eternal vigilance by the people is the price of liberty...you must pay the price if you wish to secure the blessing. It behooves you, therefore, to BE WATCHFUL in your States as well as in the Federal Government." -- Andrew Jackson, 04/1837

[b] "Bashing him does nothing to help the environment."

http://specialed.about.com/od/teacherstrategies/ht/problemsolving.htm
To solve a problem, one must FIRST understand WHY the problem exists (the actual root cause for the problem). If you know why the problem exists, you'll have a better time of resolving the problem. So one of the first steps to becoming an effective problem solver is delving into the root cause of the problem.

A "look" at Bush's abysmal environmental clearly is a first step in coming up with possible solutions. When he puts obstacles in the way to resolve problems -- he should get critiqued. When he continues to cause MORE problems while existing problems are trying to be addressed -- he should get critiqued...!

[c] "Great people don't blame others"
Hear that 28%ers..? All we ever got from Bush (and Repubs) for years was: "It's Clinton's fault", "It's the Democrats' fault", "It's the liberal media's fault".

[gwpriester]

He's ruined every thing else. Why should the environment get special attention? (irony)

May he and all his have an itch in a place they cannot scratch.

[NWMonkeyGirl]

It's heartbreaking and infuriating to see Bush throw out everything and the kitchen sink on his way out of office. It's obvious that this is the real Bush we are seeing now...a human being who doesn't care about the legacy he's leaving behind for our children. It's beyond irresponsible, it's criminal.

[KarelS]

You ain't seen nothin' yet! Wait until you see his pardon list . . .

[TomR]

That's good news for now. I'll be curious to know which corporations purchase leases today to exploit these pristine lands.

I think these corporations need to be targeted directly as well, in the same vein as how the Rainforest Action Network has sucessfully taken on big corporations including Burger King, Home Depot, Kinko's, Lowes, Boise Cascade, Mitsubishi, Citigroup, Bank of America, and JP Morgan Chase.

http://www.redorbit.com/news/technology/389541/rainforest_action_network/index.html?source=r_technology
http://ran.org/

- Tom

[Emerald1943]

I am so glad that Mr. Redford has taken up this cause! I signed his petition and sent it to all my friends to do the same.

I live in western North Carolina where we face many of the same issues....­mountainto­p leveling for strip mining, and the destruction of our forests and rivers by these mining companies. I am hopeful that through the efforts of Robert Redford and others that we can stop this insane pillaging of our beautiful natural resources.

Write letters, make phone calls to your representa­tives...do­n't let them take this from us!

[oncethere]

Bush is going for a Scorched Earth policy, whether it's our financial, environmental or moral landscape. I'm reminded of a book I once read by a woman who grew up in the wake of Nazi Germany and the physical devasation of the country. Bitter and disillusioned, she wondered what do you say to the previous generation that left you a "junkyard" for a country.

[GeorgiaOrwell]

Thank you, Mr. Redford, for bringing this huge issue to the public's attention. I signed your petition and want to know what more I personally (and others) can do as I feel really strongly about the spoilage of this beautiful resource. How can public lands be auctioned off is a question I would like to understand.. It also certainly makes you wonder why an auction like this would take place on a Friday night at midnight if not to be deceptive with the hope that people wouldn't notice this happening. I can only hope that the pending legal action will disallow this action. Also, if they auction this land and the lawsuit against drilling prevails, what happens next?

I feel the same way about our redwood forests and old growth trees, which are national treasures. With this in mind, I am particularly disturbed about the newly appointed Secretary of the Interior as he has a relatively poor record about the environment. I wish the Bureau of Land Management would be dissolved completely or at least environmentalists would for once be in charge of our natural resources.