SALT LAKE CITY -- The view of Delicate Arch natural bridge -- an unspoiled landmark so iconic it's on Utah's license plates -- could one day include a drilling platform under a proposal that environmentalists call a Bush administration "fire sale" for the oil and gas industry.
Late on Election Day, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management announced a Dec. 19 auction of more than 50,000 acres of oil and gas parcels alongside or within view of Arches National Park and two other redrock national parks in Utah: Dinosaur and Canyonlands.
The National Park Service's top official in the state calls it "shocking and disturbing" and says his agency wasn't properly notified. Environmentalists call it a "fire sale" for the oil and gas industry by a departing administration.
Officials of the BLM, which oversees millions of acres of public land in the West, say the sale is nothing unusual, and one is "puzzled" that the Park Service is upset.
So what, we can't build anything NEAR parks now? Why? Cause we can't ruin "the view". I could understand if this was in the park or something, but saying that "it can be seen from the park" is irrelevant. The park is the only protected land...the other federally owned lands are not.
Why do we care what the parks department thinks about this? Clearly Kansas should get a say in Missouri matters which are "close" or "within vision" or "within a mile" or whatever of their border. Maybe they should even have a say in Kansas City, MO, since it has their name.
Of course, it's just one more excuse for environmentalists to oppose growth, or "that thar evil oil". It's one more excuse for the beaurocracy of the Parks department to grow and get more power. And it's one last excuse for the left to call Bush a nazi monster on his way out.
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