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US court blocks oil exploration in Utah park |
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| USA: December 24, 2002 | ||
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NEW YORK - A federal court has upheld a temporary halt to oil exploration in a Utah national park, a move environmentalists say will slow the quest for energy supplies in public lands.
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In October, U.S. District Judge James Robertson halted exploration in Utah's Arches National Park to see whether the Department of Interior had required an adequate environmental assessment after four environmental groups sued the department. The groups argued that the assessment by the department's Bureau of Land Management, which manages activities on public lands, failed to show there would be "no significant impact" on the environment. The suit charged that the land management bureau, by approving the exploration activity, violated the National Environmental Policy Act. As a result of the ruling, the Bureau of Land Management will be required to complete an environmental review before authorizing energy companies access to the area. The green groups said the ruling means that environmental reviews and public participation will have to take place before federal lands are opened for energy exploration. Last year, the Bush administration issued leases for oil, gas and coal exploration on 4 million acres of federal land, up from 2.6 million in 2000, in an effort to reduce the country's dependence on foreign oil. "We're not saying that there should be no drilling on federal lands, just that the exploration should be done in a way that avoids potential environmental consequences," said Sharon Bucino, a lawyer for the Natural Resources Defense Council, one of the groups that sued. The exploration by energy service firm WesternGeco was in the canyon lands of the Dome Plateau region outside of Moab, Utah, also known as the Yellow Cat project area. It encompasses more than 23,000 acres of lands that provide habitat for several threatened or endangered species, including the black-footed ferret and the Mexican spotted owl. WesternGeco would have used 60,000-pound "thumper trucks" in the park to create seismic waves that can be charted to find oil and gas reservoirs. The green groups, including Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, the Natural Resources Defense Council, The Wilderness Society and the Sierra Club, say the seismic waves would damage desert soil for up to 300 years. WesternGeco said the seismic exploring is within the law. "We feel very confident that the work that we are doing in Utah is not impeding on any environmental laws," Linda Silinsky, a spokeswoman for Schlumberger Oilfield Services (SLB.N), which owns a majority stake in WesternGeco, told Reuters. The DOI's National Parks Service did not immediately return phone calls.
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REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
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