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Supporters and wilderness advocates like you play a critical role in the protection of Utah’s spectacular wild places.
Steve Bloch, Author at Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance
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November 28th, 2018Shortly after the Trump administration took office in 2017, SUWA filed several Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests with the Interior and Justice Departments seeking records related to several then-pending lawsuits, including a lawsuit brought by an oil and gas trade group (Western Energy Alliance) which challenged Obama-era oil and gas leasing reforms as well as the State of Wyoming’s lawsuit against Obama-era regulation of oil and gas fracking. In particular, we sought communications between the plaintiffs in those lawsuits and federal officials, concerned that one or more sweetheart settlements might be in the making.
After both Departments largely ignored our requests, SUWA filed suit in federal district court in Washington, DC seeking the release of all responsive records. After much back and forth with lawyers for the United States we began receiving a rolling production of records. We wanted to share a few notable items:
• The American Petroleum Institute’s wish list encouraging the rescission or weakening of Obama-era oil and gas leasing reforms. The Trump administration has followed through with many of these proposals.
• Emails between the Western Energy Alliance and the Departments of Interior and Justice as early as February 2017 regarding the settlement of an Alliance lawsuit. These discussions ultimately led to the Interior Department rescinding key Obama-era oil and gas leasing reforms.
• The National Mining Association’s wish list encouraging the rollback of Obama-era policies, including a coal leasing moratorium.
SUWA has several other outstanding FOIA requests and lawsuits regarding records related to President Trump’s attack on Grand Staircase-Escalante and Bears Ears national monuments as well as the State of Utah’s sweeping RS 2477 litigation. We’ll keep you posted as those bear fruit.
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August 16th, 2018President Trump’s Interior Department just released draft management plans revealing their vision for how to manage what’s left of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments as well as the lands that were illegally excised from those monuments. It was only last December that the president unlawfully attacked both of these monuments.
We expected bad, but these plans are horrible.
At Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM’s) plan sets the stage for the destruction of a unique landscape that has been protected for more than two decades.
The BLM’s preferred alternative would open huge swaths of Grand Staircase to new oil and gas leasing, mining, and off-road vehicle damage. And a new report released today from the Department of Interior crows that the lands cut from the original monument by President Trump are “rated high for development potential” of coal reserves.
The BLM is not shy about its intentions to oversee the destruction of this place. To quote directly from the Draft Environmental Impact Statement, their preferred alternative would “conserve the least land area for physical, biological, and cultural resources . . . and is the least restrictive to energy and mineral development.”
Circle Cliffs, copyright James Kay
Places like the Circle Cliffs region along the Burr Trail and Wolverine Loop Roads and the Vermillion Cliffs east of Kanab are now in the crosshairs and at immediate risk of being irreparably destroyed.
At Bears Ears, the plan is terrible, prioritizing consumptive uses such as grazing and logging while failing to protect cultural resources and wilderness-quality lands.
Under these just released plans even the smaller national monuments that
Trump left behind would be managed in a way that offers less protection
than they currently enjoy.We’ll have more information for you in the coming days, as well as instructions on how you can tell Trump’s Department of Interior what you think of their plans to further decimate Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments.
With your support, SUWA won’t rest until Trump’s unlawful orders are overturned—and we will do everything in our power to ensure that these terrible plans are never implemented.
Please contribute to SUWA today.
Thank you for taking action.
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October 27th, 2016Read More »A federal district court judge in Colorado ruled yesterday in favor of SUWA and a coalition of conservation groups in their challenge to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s decision to deny Endangered Species Act protection to two imperiled wildflowers that live only on oil shale formations in Utah and Colorado.
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October 13th, 2016A federal judge recently issued an order rejecting a natural gas project on public lands along the Upper Desolation Canyon stretch of the Green River in eastern Utah. This ruling received local and national media attention.
The plan at issue in the ruling is part of the highly controversial Gasco Natural Gas Development Project, which the BLM approved in 2012. The “Gasco project” cleared the way for nearly 1,300 new oil and gas wells in Utah’s greater Desolation Canyon region, including 215 new wells, along with roads, pipelines, and other infrastructure in an area that conservationists and federal officials agree is a wilderness-caliber landscape. This 16-well project was one of the first site-specific authorizations to follow.
The BLM has described the Desolation Canyon proposed wilderness as one of the largest unprotected roadless complexes in the lower 48 states. The area, which surrounds the Desolation Canyon stretch of the Green River, is awe-inspiring, offering spectacular vistas and abundant solitude.
The Upper Desolation Canyon stretch of the Green River offers opportunities for solitude, flatwater boating, and camping for both families and river runners alike. Photo copyright Ray Bloxham/SUWA
The Gasco project was heavily criticized in editorials across the country when it was approved in 2012. It was also roundly decried by congressional leaders, the outdoor industry, and environmental leaders, who called on the Interior Department to protect Desolation Canyon.
The 16-well project at issue in the judge’s ruling was slated for construction on three drilling pads adjacent to the Upper Desolation Canyon stretch of the Green River—a section of water that offers opportunities for families and river runners to enjoy solitude between high canyon walls, sandy beaches and groves of cottonwood trees.
Upper Desolation Canyon. Copyright Ray Bloxham/SUWA.
The BLM’s approval of the Gasco project and the 16-well project came at a time when eastern Utah had experienced several years of record high wintertime ozone levels that are largely the result of oil and gas development. The recent court decision held that the BLM’s evaluation of air pollution, and in particular ozone pollution, was inaccurate and inadequate. The judge also agreed with us that the agency did not seriously consider the noise from drilling these wells and how that would affect river runners and families.
A big thank you to all our members who submitted comments on the Gasco project, wrote letters to the editor opposing the project, or otherwise supported our efforts to send this one back to the drawing board. We couldn’t have done it without you!
This case was brought by SUWA, Natural Resources Defense Council and The Wilderness Society. A team of SUWA attorneys staffed this case, led by our former colleague David Garbett.
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October 4th, 2016Read More »SALT LAKE CITY (October 5, 2016) – A federal judge has rejected a natural gas project on public lands along the Upper Desolation Canyon on the Green River in eastern Utah.