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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- Oil and gas companies that had leases taken away from them are appealing the decision.
New Interior Secretary Ken Salazar rescinded 77 of the drilling leases sold at a December auction, saying they were too close to Arches and Canyonlands national parks and artifact-rich Nine Mile Canyon.
Salazar said they shouldn't have been sold by the Bush administration.
Now about a dozen high-bidders on the leases have filed appeals at the Interior Board of Land Appeals, but Salazar's office says the secretary's decision cannot be appealed to that board and has filed a motion to dismiss the case.
Salazar's office says the bidders should instead take their complaints to federal court.
(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
