The Bureau of Land Management is currently starting a firesale of oil and gas leases without consideration of environmental and social impacts, specifically near national parks in Nevada and Utah.

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...

An examination of the parcels, superimposing low-resolution government graphics onto Google Earth maps, shows that in one case drilling parcels bordering Arches National Park are just 1.3 miles from Delicate Arch.

"If you're standing at Delicate Arch, like thousands of people do every year, and you're looking through the arch, you could see drill pads on the hillside behind it. That's how ridiculous this proposed lease sale is," said Franklin Seal, a spokesman for the environmental group Wildland CPR.

Fortunately the NPS was able to convince the BLM to back off some of the parcels on the park borders, however many other areas are still at threat.

Other leases certain to draw objections from conservation groups include parcels on high cliffs along whitewater sections of Desolation Canyon, an area little changed since explorer John Wesley Powell in 1896 remarked on "a region of wildest desolation" while boating down the Green River to the Grand Canyon.

Still others extend to plateaus populated by big game atop Nine Mile Canyon, home to thousands of ancient rock art panels.

"This lease sale continues to be a disaster in the making," said Stephen Bloch, a staff attorney for the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance. "The Park Service has concerns about a number of other parcels close to the national parks, and it seems evidence they were rolled, and couldn't maintain their opposition."

One of the biggest misconception about BLM lands is that they are desolate lands that have no value, but those same characteristics make it one of the best places to learn about our archeological and geological history. There are some truly amazing places on blem lands.

http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=4896160
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081116/ap_on_bi_ge/national_parks_drilling