Bush adminstration targeted land near parks for drilling

A special report to Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar details how officials in the final days of the Bush administration pushed aside the National Park Service and sought to lease public lands for drilling on the borders of Utah's most famous redrock parks. Salazar was condemned by the oil industry for scrapping 77 of the leases weeks after taking office, but all of the drilling parcels had already been delayed by a federal lawsuit that is yet to be resolved. Hayes said the Bureau of Land Management -- the agency responsible for leasing public lands for energy development -- set out to lease drilling parcels on the borders of Arches National Park without notifying the Park Service, violating a long-standing pact. The BLM also moved to lease other parcels close to Canyonlands National Park and Dinosaur National Monument, and to open drilling around artifact-rich Nine Mile Canyon and along the high cliffs of whitewater sections of the wild Green River. Leasing parcels on or near the borders of national parks is highly unusual, Salazar said in a telephone interview Thursday. Hayes said the remaining 30 leases that Salazar rescinded in February could go up for sale again because they are in or next to existing oil and gas fields, but only after each parcel is carefully studied. "We're creating a SWAT team, basically, to look at parcels on an individual basis," Hayes said...AP