Report: Bush admin's gas leases too close to parks

SALT LAKE CITY -- Bush administration officials pushed aside the National Park Service and sought to lease public lands for drilling on the borders of Utah's most famous redrock parks during their final days in power, a special report to Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar says.

Salazar was condemned by the oil industry for scrapping 77 of the leases weeks after taking office, but all of the drilling parcels had already been delayed by a federal lawsuit that still hasn't been resolved.

Salazar defended his decision in a telephone interview Thursday, saying that leasing parcels on or near borders of national parks is highly unusual.

"At the end of the day, the Bush administration attempted to get as much public land leased for oil and gas development as they possibly could," Salazar said. "That kind of rush to a result short-circuited processes that are in place to protect our most precious landscapes."

Two retired high-ranking officials of the Bureau of Land Management said they were making available the land on which industry wanted to drill, and that the parcels close to national parks would have been encumbered with limits on noise, lighting and hours of drilling operation.

"I do agree that you should not drill willy-nilly. But on the other hand, if there is opportunity for domestic energy supplies to be expanded, you cannot just walk away," said retired BLM director James L. Caswell of Emmett, Idaho.

Salazar's actions provoked a political battle that held up the Senate's confirmation of his chief deputy, David Hayes, who wrote the report and found serious flaws in the awarding of oil and gas leases on a visit to Utah.

Hayes said the BLM — the agency responsible for leasing public lands for energy development — set out to lease drilling parcels on the borders of Arches National Park without notifying the Park Service, violating a long-standing pact.

The BLM also moved to lease other parcels close to Canyonlands National Park and Dinosaur National Monument, and to open drilling around artifact-rich Nine Mile Canyon and along the high cliffs of whitewater sections of the wild Green River.