Conservation Groups Sue Interior Department Over Drilling Plans for Public Lands in Utah

摘要

A coalition of eight environmental groups sued the Interior Department Nov. 9, challenging three Bureau of Land Management plans authorizing oil and gas development and other uses on 4.5 million acres of public lands in southeast Utah (Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance v. Interior Department, D.D.C., No. 10-CV-1930, 11/9/10).rnThe lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, alleged that BLM's 2008 approval of resource management plans (RMPs) and travel plans for the bureau's Monticello, Kanab, and Richfield areas violated federal law by failing to consider the environmental impacts of such activities as oil and gas development, off-road vehicle use, and other motor vehicle use on the lands, including their contribution to climate change.