SOURCE: FSEEE
DATE: September 13, 2018
SNIP: Bureau of Land Management officials this week auctioned off 134,000 acres in Utah for potential oil and gas drilling, including tracts near Canyonlands National Park and Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, as the Trump administration continued its efforts to expand energy production on public lands.
Meanwhile, Forest Service interim chief Vicki Christiansen announced today that her agency is laying plans to streamline regulations governing mining and drilling on national forests and grasslands.
“This is one of many efforts that our agency is undertaking to focus on our priority of regulatory reform,” Christiansen said in a statement released today. “Our goal is to make our processes as simple and efficient as possible while ensuring a sustainable environment for future generations.”
The new rules proposed by the Forest Service are designed to expedite hard-rock mining and oil and gas drilling on national forests and grasslands.
“This is a textbook example of what Trump’s ‘energy dominance’ agenda looks like in Utah,” said Stephen Bloch, legal director for the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance. “It’s a full-on assault against one of our state’s wildest places.”