Interior May Delay Oil and Gas Projects (until after election?)

[papau]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A9536-2004Aug17.html

Interior May Delay Oil and Gas Projects (until after election?)
BLM Officers Can Defer Leases on U.S. Lands While Resource Plans Developed

By Juliet Eilperin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, August 18, 2004; Page A17


Interior Department officials announced this week they will delay some new oil and gas projects on public lands until they can evaluate drilling's effects on wildlife.

Some hunters' and anglers' groups hailed the initiative, though several environmentalists said that it meant little in light of the administration's push for energy development on federal property.<snip>

The administration is rewriting 162 management plans, which dictate federal policy on issues from grazing to drilling. Twenty-two of the plans, applying to such states as Colorado, New Mexico, Montana, Utah and Wyoming, are time-sensitive and will be completed by 2006, Watson said.<snip>

Western environmentalists, however, described the BLM's policy directive as cosmetic. Upper Green River Valley Coalition grass-roots coordinator Linda Baker, whose group monitors the drilling in Pinedale, noted that 75 percent of the available federal land in the area is already leased. "That still isn't balanced management," she said.<snip>

[Ganja Ninja]

1. No sense tipping people off that your about to ...

give away America's crown jewels to big oil.