Lawsuit challenges new wilderness rules
By Jeremiah Stettler, Salt Lake Tribune, Mar 23 2011 [here]
With the U.S. Department of Interior considering new wilderness protections for potentially millions of acres of public lands, a coalition of Utah counties filed a lawsuit this week accusing federal officials of overreaching their authority and threatening the state’s economy.
The Utah Association of Counties and Uintah County are suing the Department of Interior to reverse its new wildland policy, which could restrict oil and gas development and off-road recreation on up to six million acres.
The lawsuit claims the policy violates a 2003 agreement between then-Gov. Mike Leavitt and former Interior Secretary Gale Norton to abandon wilderness consideration for vast tracts of Utah lands.
The controversy over wilderness policy is no more personal than in Uintah County, where Commissioner Mike McKee warns that the economic repercussions could be far-reaching. He testified before Congress that the policy threatens at least $15 billion worth of investment in his community’s oil and gas industry over the next decade.
“These decisions very much affect the economy of our county, of the Uinta Basin and of the state of Utah,” he said Wednesday. “These companies are fully willing and prepared to make major investments into eastern Utah if they can have a measure of predictability.”
Although the Department of Interior declined to comment on the dispute because it involves litigation, a Bureau of Land Management spokesman defended the changes as a more “balanced” approach to public lands stewardship. … [more]