According to The Huffington Post today, the National Resources Defense Council, an environmental action group, filed a lawsuit with the Bureau of Land Management to stop the sale of huge sections of wilderness in Utah's canyonlands for oil and natural gas drilling. As I (and others) have previously written, the sale of these lands was a purely special-interests move, designed to give more to the Big Energy companies. These leases in Utah had already been limited by earlier court actions, but this move will hopefully protect an additional 100,000 acres. The leases will be auctioned off, but the buyers will not be allowed to do anything until the lawsuit is settled - and we can only hope that it will be settled in favor of the environment.
The canyonlands of Utah are an area of the U.S. unlike any other. They are carved out into some of the most beautiful shapes and courses, merely by a few drops of rain. To go down the rivers, or to hike through them, is to spend days without seeing or hearing another human being. This I have done, and it was an experience unlike any other. The solitude and the beauty is simply indescribable. You just have to go there and experience it.
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