IMBA, Oil Drilling, and the BLM
Thanks to Rage's post on the article in the latest Bike Mag, I rushed to bikemag.com to check out the "33 Best Trails" and came across some great news (which may be old news to some of you).
The oil drilling in Moab and other areas has been averted, mostly in part to the protests made by IMBA and other clubs.
Here's the full text of the article:
In December, we reported that the Porcupine Rim and Amasa Back trails in Moab, Utah, had narrowly averted being leased to oil companies for drilling. Thanks to protest by IMBA and the Outdoor Industry Association, as well as concerned locals like Western Spirit owner Ashley Korenblat, the Bureau of Land Management delayed the auctions indefinitely. But despite that victory, other areas like Tusher Canyon remained in danger.
Then came the crucial intercession that many riders had hoped for. According to the New York Times, President Obama's interior secretary, Ken Salazar, has cancelled auctions to drill for oil and gas on 77 parcels of public land in Utah, including those that abutted beloved mountain bike trails.
Mr. Salazar said in a news conference that after reviewing the Bush administration's midnight attempts to lease the land, he had found the BLM had “rushed ahead to sell oil and gas leases at the doorstep of some of our greatest national icons, some of our nation’s most treasured landscapes” without properly reviewing the environmental and economic impacts to the area. The local economies around Canyonlands and Arches National Parks revolve around outdoor tourism, much of it mountain bike-based, that could have suffered greatly if drilling were to begin.
Several of the auctions in question had already occurred, meaning the government will have to return about $6 million in fees paid by winning bidders. One of those auctions was subject to the sabotage of a Sugar Hill, Utah, protestor, who entered bogus bids for drilling rights. Tim DeChristopher, 27, may face federal charges for winning $1.8 million in federal leases while having no intention or ability to pay for them.
DeChristopher's actions underscore the urgency of the situation, which threatened to render one of the nation's most beautiful backcountry reserves pock-marked by surveying equipment and drilling rigs. "What the environmental movement has been doing for the past 20 years hasn't worked," DeChristopher said in December, according to CommonDreams.org. "It's time for a conflict. There's a lot at stake." Secretary Salazar has said that he may revisit Utah drilling auctions once he has properly evaluated the environmental impacts.
Barring any future reconsiderations, cessation of drilling leases for Utah's public land is effective immediately, and comes as a part of the Obama Administration's broader reconsideration of many Bush-era environmental initiatives. According to the Times, Secretary Salazar is also revising decisions on offshore drilling and endangered species listings. Yet environmental advocates aren't wholly relieved—despite this major victory, there is still no little federal legislation that protects recreational resources the way endangered animals or Wilderness areas are protected.
Nice job!
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