Federal Judge Halts Redrock Country Oil & Gas Leases

A federal judge in Washington, DC has blocked Bush administration efforts to open 110,000 acres of land in Utah's famous red rock country for oil and gas drilling.

The judge, Ricardo Urbina of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, issued a temporary restraining order. He wrote in his opinion that he needed more time to evaluate the arguments of both parties. As is necessary in any case in which an injunction is issued, the judge found that the plaintiff conservation groups "have shown a likelihood of success on the merits" and that the "'development of domestic energy resources' … is far outweighed by the public interest in avoiding irreparable damage to public lands and the environment."

Environmentalists welcomed the decision.

"Under the Bush administration, the Bureau of Land Management pushed through Resource Management Plans that treated some of America's most sensitive and spectacular public lands as the private playgrounds of the oil and gas companies," Grand Canyon Trust executive director Bill Hedden said. "Today's heartening court decision gives these unique places a last second pardon from forever sacrificing their archaeological treasures, pristine air and remote wildness in order to sate only an hour or two of our national addiction to oil and gas."

Urbina's ruling means that the checks written to the U.S. Treasury by the successful bidders for the drilling rights cannot be cashed and no drilling activity can occur on the affected land.

The parcels at issue are near Arches and Canyonlands National Parks and Dinosaur National Monument and some are located within the roadless Desolation Canyon area, which is being considered for wilderness designation. The area covered by the auction also contains a large amount of prehistoric archaeological sites and other cultural resources, including those within Nine Mile Canyon.

The parcels had been auctioned Dec. 19 after having been announced on election day and the Bureau of Land Management had announced it would finalize the leases on Jan. 19.

The issuance of the temporary restraining order will give the incoming Obama administration an opportunity to re-consider the sale of the leases. Aides to the president-elect have voiced concerns about opening the parcels to oil and gas drilling.

Judge Urbina's decision came in Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance et ux. v. Allred et al., No. 1:08-CV-02187-RMU (D.D.C.).

A New York Times story from November 2008 on the controversy is here.