Nine Mile Canyon Oil & Gas Leases Blocked
A court order has blocked the Federal Bureau of Land Management’s bid to cash in on huge profits from oil and gas leaks at Nine Mile Canyon. The Canyon walls are graced with hundreds of fragile petroglyphs that stand to be ruined by the corrosive effects of industrial truck traffic going back and forth between proposed oil and gas wells.The legal ruling was a temporary restraining order issues by Judge Ricardo Urbina of the US District Court in Washington D.C. The ruling stated that the Interior Department had not done adequate environmental analysis, especially regarding degradation of air quality.This ruling was especially welcome at the end of George W. Bush’s presidency when the oil industry was trying to push through more leases for oil and gas development. We can thank The National Trust for Historic Preservation, along with the Colorado Plateau Archaeological Alliance, Nine Mile Canyon Coalition and the Utah Rock Art Research Association, for filing the lawsuit. They were joined by Actor Robert Redford who called the lease sale as “morally criminal.”