Report Faults Bush Officials Over Utah Land Auction

[Scurrilous]

Source: Washington Post

<snip>

"A new report from the Department of the Interior says that Bush administration officials did not follow longstanding practices when they auctioned off 77 parcels of Utah land for oil and gas drilling while keeping the National Park Service in the dark about potential drilling near park land.

The report, issued today, does not say what should be done with those 77 parcels for which drilling rights were sold in December, then taken back by Interior Secretary Ken Salazar in February. It says that some of them should not be used for drilling but calls for the Bureau of Land Management to figure out exactly which.

"It is clear that in the rush to sell the leases, the previous Administration bypassed normal reviews and consultations with the National Park Service," Salazar said in a written statement released by the Interior Department.

The leases, which total about 110,000 acres, are located near such treasured areas as Nine Mile Canyon, Arches National Park and Dinosaur National Monument. The Bush administration sold them at auction on December 19, raising $6 million."

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/11/AR2009061103609.html?hpid=moreheadlines

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From the archives:

Interior Secretary Cancels Leases on Federal Land in Utah

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=3723068

[Demeter]

1. Of Course They Didn't---Rules Are for Other People, Just Like Taxes

Dictators aren't to be bothered by such formalities.