46 Dems lend support to Interior wilderness plan (01/21/2011)

Phil Taylor, E&E reporter

Forty-six House Democrats today defended a recent decision by Interior Secretary Ken Salazar to allow temporary roadless protections on millions of acres of public lands in the West.

The lawmakers, led by Natural Resources ranking member Ed Markey (D-Mass.), praised Salazar’s secretarial order last month directing Bureau of Land Management officials to take stock of wilderness-quality lands in its resource management plans (Greenwire, Dec. 23, 2010).

“Congress has identified wilderness preservation as a fundamental purpose of public land management and required your department to routinely assess public lands for wilderness characteristics,” the lawmakers wrote in a letter to Salazar.

A 2003 settlement between former Interior Secretary Gale Norton and Utah Gov. Gary Herbert (R) that ended BLM’s wilderness inventory flouted the agency’s statutory responsibilities and likely exceeded the scope of the litigation, the lawmakers added.

“The [George W.] Bush administration’s eight-year campaign to subjugate all other uses of public land — recreation, water quality, habitat, ranching — to rampant energy development has been well documented,” the lawmakers wrote.

Salazar’s order “restores balance” by allowing BLM to fulfill its conservation duties while acknowledging Congress’ authority to designate permanent wilderness, the lawmakers said. Final guidance to land managers on the policy is expected next month.

The letter comes as Interior’s “wild lands” policy has taken heat from some Republicans and Western governors who fear the policy will prevent energy developers and off-highway vehicle users from accessing BLM lands (Land Letter, Jan. 20).

Utah Rep. Rob Bishop (R), chairman of the subcommittee’s public lands panel, yesterday said he was still fuming over the policy after meeting this week with BLM Director Bob Abbey.

“He has no plan, they have no criteria,” for implementing the policy, Bishop told E&E.

The policy will create another level of uncertainty for developers over what lands may be put off-limits to oil and gas drilling, a crucial source of state revenue, Bishop said.

“Education in Utah depends on a good manufacturing base and mineral extraction base, and what Abbey and Salazar are doing is screwing up education funding in Utah,” Bishop said.

Idaho GOP Rep. Mike Simpson, the top House appropriator for Interior agencies, yesterday said he had not made up his mind about the wild lands policy but called his meeting this week with Abbey “a very friendly discussion.”

“I still have some concerns, but I want to hit all sides of the issue,” Simpson said.

Click here to read the letter.