Last year the BLM proposed to sell 57 oil and gas leases primarily located in Utah’s stunning San Rafael Swell. The leases would have green-lighted development on more than 80,000 acres of proposed wilderness, the vast majority of which the BLM itself acknowledges are wilderness-caliber landscapes. The leases would have also authorized...
Read MoreCategoriesBlog
Celebrating the 5th Anniversary of the 77 Lease Sale
Today is a good day. Five years ago to this very date a federal district court judge in Washington, D.C. issued an order enjoining the Bush administration from issuing 77 oil and gas leases it sold in late December 2008 across several spectacular Utah red rock landscapes. Judge Ricardo Urbina’s...
Read MoreCategoriesBlog
More great news! Wild lands in San Rafael Swell won’t be leased!
Yesterday, the Bureau of Land Management made the right decision and dropped its plans to lease 80,000 acres of wilderness caliber lands in the San Rafael Swell for oil and gas development.
Read MoreCategoriesARRWA
Conservation Group and Energy Company Reach Agreement on Planned Helium Development in Emery County, Utah
SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH—The Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (SUWA) and IACX Energy, Dallas, TX, announced today that they have reached an agreement regarding IACX’s planned helium development in Emery County, Utah. The agreement was reached in advance of any appeals or litigation and resolves concerns raised by SUWA regarding the...
Read MoreCategoriesBlog
Guest Blog: The Race to Save the San Rafael Swell
I ran with almost all of my wife’s family, the eight of us ranging in age from 31-75. We all wore shirts proclaiming a message we thought would be self-evident to anyone running through the beauty of this sandstone paradise, “Don’t Drill the San Rafael.”
Read More