These badlands near Sand Wash in Desolation Canyon will be littered with well pads and roads if the Gasco Project is approved as is.  Photo courtesy of Bruce Gordon/Ecoflight.

This is the last week to tell the Obama Administration to protect Desolation Canyon before it releases its decision on the potentially disastrous Gasco project.

Remember, this is the project that places at risk one of the lower 48’s largest unprotected roadless areas.  The Bureau of Land Management’s current preferred alternative for this project would locate more than 200 wells inside of proposed wilderness surrounding Desolation Canyon.  This destruction is needless, as the agency could instead select “Alternative E” and eliminate all wells inside of proposed wilderness while still allowing Gasco to drill over 1,100 wells.

Fortunately, thanks to the efforts of SUWA members and supporters, people are starting to take notice of this misguided project and the harm it could cause.  Even the New York Times editorialized last week against this boondoggle.  The Salt Lake Tribune has not once, but twice declared that this is not the way to do things.

Your voice makes a difference.  Please take this opportunity to chime in and point the Obama administration in the right direction.

The BLM has announced that it plans to finalize its decision on the Gasco project after the close of a thirty-day waiting period, which ends on Monday, April 16.  Please let Interior Secretary Ken Salazar know before then that you expect him to make the right decision and protect Desolation Canyon by selecting Alternative E.

While you are at it, make sure to sign our Change.org petition and tell your friends to take action to protect Desolation Canyon.

Looking southeast from a bench off the Wrinkle Road — a Gasco well would be drilled in this approximate area under Alternative F.



Looking into Nine Mile Canyon (Nine Mile Creek) from the Sand Wash airstrip (no proposed wells visible, though drilling of proposed wells could be seen/heard from this location).



Sand Wash airstrip looking north to the Sand Wash put-in (no proposed wells visible, though drilling of proposed wells could be seen/heard from this location).

Looking north/northwest from the Sand Wash airstrip (Sand Wash road leading to the river put-in below).  Wells would be drilled atop the Bad Land cliffs (background) and on the western (left) edge of the Wrinkle Road in the photo.



Sand Wash airstrip looking west/northwest into the Gasco project area. Wells would be located on the top of the Bad Land Cliffs in the background and along the intermediate bench (Wrinkle Road).



Looking east from a bench off the Wrinkle Road — a proposed well would be drilled in this approximate location under Alternative F.

Posted by David Garbett

In SUWA’s e-newsletter last month (click here to read), we told you about the Obama administration’s proposal to drill 215 new natural gas wells in the Desolation Canyon proposed wilderness.  But it’s not too late for the Obama administration to change its mind.

Click here to tell Interior Secretary Ken Salazar to protect the Desolation Canyon proposed wilderness.

An alternative plan for the Gasco natural gas project would allow for significant energy development while also protecting the Desolation Canyon proposed wilderness from drilling.

We have until April 16 to convince the Obama administration to adopt this alternative proposal.  Please send a message to Secretary Salazar today!

To amplify your message to the Obama administration, please also sign our Change.org petition and spread the word on Facebook and your other social networks.


Tell the Obama Administration to take Desolation Canyon out of its Crosshairs

Posted by David Garbett

Utah Governor Gary Herbert not only wants to get rid of protections for Utah’s wild lands — now he’s supporting legislation that demands the federal government sell all of the public land in Utah.

Help stop Governor Herbert - make a contribution today! Gooseneck of the Colorado. Copyright Tom Till.

We need your help to stop him from destroying the wild landscapes we all love. Can you make a contribution to SUWA today to help us fight Governor Herbert’s dangerous proposals?

Click here to make a contribution today.

First, Gov. Herbert announced in December that Utah intends to sue the United States to claim control of nearly 19,000 “roads” in wild areas that are roadless. Now, he’s supporting state legislation that would demand the selling of all federal public land in Utah.

He even went so far as to say at a recent news conference:  “The federal government needs to answer the question ‘why have you not disposed of this property?’”

He’s talking about public lands that you and I own together — lands that are part of our national heritage!

And to make matters worse — one of the sponsors of the “sell-it-all” legislation is a housing developer.

Will you stand with us today to stop Governor Herbert from destroying Utah’s wild lands?

Yes! I want to contribute to protect Utah’s public lands.

For the last 29 years the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, with tremendous help from supporters like you, has fought to protect Utah’s redrock wilderness and, with your help, we’ve managed to secure some form of protection for over 5 million acres.  But Governor Herbert’s attack on wilderness could undo this protection and is poses the greatest threat to redrock wilderness in years.

Please join us to stop Governor Herbert’s attack on lands that belong to all Americans.

Posted by Deeda Seed

In a year when we’ve seen countless attacks on wilderness and America’s public lands, it came as a relief when the Department of Interior proposed to protect precious landscapes and Western watersheds from the ravages of a Big Oil Boondoggle in its just-released draft Oil Shale and Tar Sands Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement.

In that document, Interior supports a plan that will allow some lands to be leased for research and development (and if shown to be successful and environmentally safe, then commercial development), while protecting special places.  For this action, the Obama administration deserves praise for tackling the irrational oil shale giveaway plan left in place by the previous administration.

Tell Congress to stand with the Department of Interior on oil shale!

But now, friends of Big Oil are pushing a bill that would ignore the realities of the oil shale “industry” and roll back regulations to Bush-Era mayhem, opening iconic landscapes in Utah, Wyoming and Colorado to an industry that even some of its most ardent backers agree is not ready for primetime. Rep. Doug Lamborn’s (CO) “PIONEERS” bill (HR 3408) would open millions of acres of federal land to leasing for what amounts to a mad scientist’s experiment with what is likely the dirtiest and least efficient fuel on the planet.

Even sillier, House Republicans are using the excuse that this handout to the oil industry can somehow fund the transportation bill.  This is a terrible idea.  Importantly, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has concluded that the bill wouldn’t generate any significant revenue due to the oil shale industry’s lack of commercial viability.

Please tell Congress Oil Shale is an Oil Fail.

The Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement issued by the DOI isn’t perfect, but it takes the necessary cautious and skeptical approach we need for a technology that has failed time and again. Large scale commercial oil shale production would be disastrous to our already-strapped Western water supply, and we need to take a serious look at those consequences—especially before handing over the keys to some of America’s most iconic landscapes.

Snake oil is the only oil that shale has ever produced, and Lamborn and Boehner are coiled and ready to serve up more of it this week.

Contact your Representative and tell him/her to oppose commercial leasing for oil shale!

P.S. Today twelve local and national groups sent a letter to members of the House of Representatives urging Congress to approve Representative Jared Polis’ (D-CO) amendment #130 to H.R. 3408 to remove harmful and speculative oil shale provisions that endanger Western public lands and water supplies and do nothing to fund transportation projects or create jobs.  Read the letter by clicking here.

Posted by Richard Peterson-Cremer