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Energy:
Gag on Protests of Oil & Gas Drilling

Our Position: oppose
Bill Number: sjr10
Sponsor: Sen Howard Stephenson (R-Draper)
Legislative Session: 2005 General Session

Shortly after the Bush Administration came into office, it issued the instruction to the BLM in Utah that new oil and gas leases were their number one priority.  In light of that injunction, the BLM has sold oil and gas leases and permited exploration helter-skelter with no consideration for the other values of the land.  Exploration has been approved in one of the world's most precious rock art sites, Nine Mile Canyon, and immediately adjacent to Arches National Park and in areas that the BLM itself found had wilderness characteristics.  Clearly responsibility has been thrown out the window.

Now Senator Howard Stephenson has gotten passed a resolution (SJR 10) that urges the United States Congress to pass legislation to take away the only means that individuals and groups, like the Sierra Club, have to protect habitat, wilderness and other resource values threatened by oil and gas drilling.

Status

Action Needed

This resolution passed the senate by a vote of 23-4-2.  Click here to find out if your senator voted the right way (nay).  There were also disappointing votes by some of our friends in the house, which voted 64-6-5 in favor of this bill.  To find out how your representative voted, click here.

Unfortunately, it passed the house too.  Now we need to let Governor Huntsman know that this resolution urges an infringement of our rights.  To send a message to the governor, click here.

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