BLM

As head of the Department of the Interior, Ken Salazar will face a delicate balancing act in managing public lands for conservation, recreation and development, according to industry executives and environmental activists.

"It is a balance that kind of got out of whack in the last few years," said Jane Danowitz, public land director for the Pew Environment Group.

Salazar will also face issues his predecessors have not, including starting up offshore oil drilling, helping institute the Obama administration's renewable-energy policy and adding climate change to public-lands planning.

"This is a very full and complex plate," said Bill Meadows, president of the Wilderness Society, an environmental group based in Washington, D.

(Photo/Bureau of Land Management Colorado field office)

Even as Republican state lawmakers gear up to make Colorado a more oil-shale-friendly business climate, a group of national and regional environmental groups Tuesday announced their intent to sue the federal Bureau of Land Management over so-called “midnight” leasing regulations pushed through by the Bush administration.

A group that includes the Center for Biological Diversity, Colorado Environmental Coalition and the Sierra Club Tuesday sent a notice of intent to sue to outgoing Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne and U.S. Bureau of Land Management Director James Caswell outlining alleged violations of the Endangered Species Act.

Specifically, the groups contend the BLM’s

More than 100 protesters outside a U.S. Bureau of Land Management oil-and-gas drilling lease auction Friday in Salt Lake City charged the federal government with selling off 164,000 acres of public land for private profit, potentially defiling some of the state’s most treasured national parks.

“It’s public lands and not for private wealth,” protester Daniel Darger told The Associated Press. “It’s going to kill tourism in this state if you can see oil rigs from Arches National Park.”

That prospect — derricks in eyeshot of the park’s iconic Delicate Arch, which graces the state’s license plates — prompted a protest against the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) from the National Park Service and an admonishment from the Bush administration to work together.

As head of the Department of the Interior, Ken Salazar will face a delicate balancing act in managing public lands for conservation, recreation and development, according to industry executives and environmental activists.

"It is a balance that kind of got out of whack in the last few years," said Jane Danowitz, public land director for the Pew Environment Group.

Salazar will also face issues his predecessors have not, including starting up offshore oil drilling, helping institute the Obama administration's renewable-energy policy and adding climate change to public-lands planning.

"This is a very full and complex plate," said Bill Meadows, president of the Wilderness Society, an environmental group based in Washington, D.

As head of the Department of the Interior, Ken Salazar will face a delicate balancing act in managing public lands for conservation, recreation and development, according to industry executives and environmental activists.

"It is a balance that kind of got out of whack in the last few years," said Jane Danowitz, public land director for the Pew Environment Group.

Salazar will also face issues his predecessors have not, including starting up offshore oil drilling, helping institute the Obama administration's renewable-energy policy and adding climate change to public-lands planning.

"This is a very full and complex plate," said Bill Meadows, president of the Wilderness Society, an environmental group based in Washington, D.

Governor Bill Ritter was hoping that the compromise solution of partly opening the Roan to drilling which he proposed in December would stick. In part we think he was influenced because oil prices were approaching $100 per barrel in December of last year. With oil prices now near $135 per barrel, it'll be a risk for Democrats to weigh in on the subject one way or another.