Current work in wildlife, rivers, public lands, and climate

Monday, August 8, 2016
Guardians Calls on Obama Administration to Reject Massive Public Lands Fracking Plans in Utah

Monument Butte Drilling Development Will Add Nearly 6,000 New Wells, Produce More Climate Pollution than Coal-fired Power Plants
Contact: Jeremy Nichols, (303) 437-7663, jnichols@wildearthguardians.org

Vernal, UT—WildEarthGuardians today called on the Obama Administration to reject a plan to open upmore than 100,000 acres of public lands in Utah for fracking, a move thatthreatens to unleash as much carbon pollution as 29 coal-fired power plants.

“This is a climate disaster that we simply can’t afford toallow,” said Jeremy Nichols, Climate and Energy Program Director for WildEarthGuardians. “Nobody in their right mind would say ‘yes’ to 29 coal-fired powerplants, but that’s exactly what the Obama Administration seems to be proposinghere.”

The Monument Butte oil and gas project would allow NewfieldExploration Corp., a major U.S. oil and gas company, to drill 5,750 new oil andgas wells across 119,000 acres of publicly owned lands in the Uinta Basin ofnortheastern Utah, an area larger than the City of Denver. The project would turn an area alreadyheavily impacted by oil and gas drilling and fracking into a complete oil andgas industrial sacrifice zone.

Worse, the increase in drilling and fracking comes as smoglevels in the remote Uinta Basin have exceeded those in Los Angeles and otherbig cities. Studies have linked smog in the region to unchecked oil and gasdevelopment, which produces more than 98% of all smog-forming emissions.

Pipeline leaks, tank venting, engines, and drilling andfracking activities all contribute to the region’s air pollution problem.

The Utah State Office of the U.S. Bureau of Land Managementhas proposed to approve the Monument Butte project even though it would fuelmore air and climate pollution.

In comments submitted today, Guardians called on the Bureauof Land Management to reject the Monument Butte project, calling out thefailure of the agency to account for the clean air and climate impacts of thedrilling and fracking.

“We can’t possibly protect our clean air and our climate ifwe keep giving the fossil fuel industry a free pass to destroy our publiclands,” said Nichols. “President Obamaneeds to draw a line, we simply can’t afford to allow our public lands to besacrificed to the oil and gas industry.”

A decision on the Monument Butte oil and gas project islikely by the end of 2016.

Photos of the Monument Butte project area can be viewed here >>