Utah counties asking for gov's help in protecting grazing from pipeline

Officials in several Utah counties are asking Gov. Gary Herbert for his help in protecting the grazing of livestock on public lands. Leaders in those counties - including Cache, Box Elder, Rich, Uintah and Tooele - are concerned about agreements that El Paso Corporation, parent company of the Ruby Pipeline, entered into with two environmental groups earlier this year. Those contracts call for the establishment of two "conservation funds," with one major goal being the retirement of federal grazing permits. "Whether it is to remove this part from the agreement or the agreement completely dissolved, we ask for your support in helping us to see that this does not become the catalyst that would end the cattle industry in the West through the elimination of grazing right permits," reads the letter to Herbert signed by officials in the five counties. The Utah counties are members of a multi-county coalition with representatives from the four western states that Ruby Pipeline will pass through, including Utah, Wyoming, Nevada and Oregon. Work on the 42-inch natural gas pipeline is currently progressing in those states. Angie Welling, spokeswoman for Gov. Herbert, told The Herald Journal on Monday that the governor is sensitive to the counties' concerns...more