Pres. Bush wants to open Utah land for drilling

Estimated read time: Less than a minute

This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.

President Bush is trying to open up Utah land for drilling before he leaves office.

His plans outline future plans for oil and gas development for millions of acres of public land in Utah. The Bureau if Land Management says it will make sure more than half of those acres will be under stricter environmental rules.

Environmentalists say the Bush administration has pushed these plans through as a last-minute bonus for oil and gas companies.

But seven years ago Congress decided plans for Utah's public lands were out of date, and it ordered the BLM to focus more on increased demand for oil and gas and ATVs.

Today's plans call for leasing millions of acres in southern and eastern Utah to oil and gas development, and they identify trails for off-roaders.

E-mail: mrichards@ksl.com