Bloomberg reports:Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said he is nullifying oil and natural gas drilling leases on about 130,000 acres in Utah because they are near national parks and questions have been raised about environmental reviews. “Those are American iconic treasures we need to make sure are being protected,” Salazar said on a conference call with reporters today. He also said the environmental review process “was not complete.” The government will forgo $6 million of $7.5 million in bids on the leases from a Dec. 19 auction, Salazar said. The directive today, affecting 77 of the 116 leases sold, are for areas near Dinosaur National Monument and Arches and Canyonlands national parks. “I see this announcement as a sign that after eight long years of rapacious greed and backdoor dealings, our government is returning a sense of balance to the way it manages our lands,” actor and director Robert Redford, a trustee for the Natural Resources Defense Council, said in a statement...
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