Another backpedaling by the Obama Administration? Oil and gas leases being reconsidered:

[CaliforniaPeggy]

Today's LA Times:

Some oil- and gas-drilling leases may be reinstated
The leases, auctioned near the end of the Bush administration, were blocked by Obama's Interior Department. Now a report opens the door to 30 of them being reissued.

By Jim Tankersley and Nicholas Riccardi

June 12, 2009

Reporting from Washington and Denver -- Under pressure from Republican lawmakers, the administration is considering whether to reinstate more than a third of the 77 oil- and gas-drilling leases near national parks in the Mountain West that it blocked shortly after President Obama took office.

In a report released Thursday, the Interior Department criticized the process under which those leases were auctioned in the waning days of the George W. Bush administration. But the report also opened the door for the department to reinstate or re-auction 30 leases on parcels that lie in existing oil and gas development areas or are "not near particularly sensitive landscapes."

It instructed the Bureau of Land Management to conduct a more thorough review of those parcels to see if leasing them would be appropriate. "The BLM team should do its work expeditiously," the report concluded. "Companies who successfully bid on specific parcels should receive timely feedback on whether they will be able to develop those parcels."

The leases in question include tracts near Arches and Canyonlands national parks in Utah.

The auction was held in December, about a month before Obama took office. Conservation groups challenged the lease sales in court, and incoming Interior Secretary Ken Salazar ordered the 77 most controversial ones vacated while a special review was conducted.

More at link:
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-oil-leases12-2009jun12,0,5467237.story

[Captain Hilts]

1. They've gone back and forth on this one. nt

[elocs]

2. As voter remorse continues to solidify.

Could it be that Obama is secretly a freeper changeling? Let the constructive criticism commence.

[Cant trust em]

4. I'm not sure that "freeper changeling" is constructive criticism. nt

[elocs]

8. True enough. A lot of what passes here for "constructive criticism" is not constructive at all.

It just gives the poster cover for taking a shot.

[villager]

3. The daily "backpedaling on an enviromental position" from the "change" administration?

n/t

[CaliforniaPeggy]

5. I see it that way too, and it's upsetting. (nt)

[Autumn]

6. "Under pressure from Republican lawmakers"

How great is that?:rofl: :rofl:

[Common Sense Party]

7. I don't approve of the leases for parcels directly ADJACENT

to Arches or Canyonlands, but I don't object to the other leases, subject to all existing BLM restrictions and guidelines.

[Bluebear]

9. 'Under pressure from Republican lawmakers' - Great.

[leftofthedial]

10. who won the 2008 election?

I seriously can't tell anymore.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

11. Neither can I, my dear leftofthedial...

And it makes me very sad and angry.

[leftofthedial]

12. Hi Peggy!

It's good to hear from you. I'm not around DU much anymore.