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Score: Utah 2, BLM Wilderness Protection 0

Few things in politics are certain, but it’s a safe bet that Barak Obama will not carry the state of Utah in his 2012 re-election bid. But despite its dismal electoral prospects in the state, the Obama Administration knuckled under to pressure from Utah and other western Republicans this week when Secretary of Interior Ken Salazar did an about-face on the Bureau of Land Management’s “Wild Lands” policy. The policy, announced by the Secretary less than six months ago, allowed BLM to designate specific lands with wilderness characteristics for protection under agency management plans. Specific protections would have been identified in the planning process open to public participation.

The Wild Lands policy filled a gap in BLM’s land management authority created when Gale Norton, one of Salazar’s predecessors during the George W. Bush Administration, entered into a legal settlement with Utah under which BLM agreed to cease designating “wilderness study areas.” WSAs are designated areas on BLM lands found to have wilderness characteristics and managed by the agency “consistent with” wilderness until Congress decides whether to officially designate them as wilderness or “release” them for multiple use management. In December, 2010, Salazar emphasized the settlement “never should have happened” and issued an order allowing BLM to once again administratively designate land to be managed to protect wilderness values through the agency’s planning process.    

Salazar’s move infuriated western Republicans, who promptly attached a provision to April’s budget deal funding the federal government that forbade BLM from spending any money to implement the Wild Lands policy. As usual, the state of Utah was a particularly vocal opponent of the Obama Administration’s bid to resume protecting wilderness values.  

Utah officials were therefore in a celebratory mood this week over Salazar’s backcountry flip-flop. Asserting that federal policy protecting wild areas on BLM land “harmed the Utah economy, prevented job growth, blocked domestic energy development and resulted in less revenue for our state,” Utah Senator Mike Lee applauded the Obama Administration’s retrenchment.

But while bashing wilderness protections makes for great newspaper copy in the Salt Lake City Tribune and scores political points with powerful western extractive industries and motorized recreation enthusiasts, reversing the Wild Lands policy might not be the boon to the economy of Utah and other western states that wilderness opponents claim. According to recent estimates from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, mining and logging employed nearly 11,000 people in Utah as of April 2011, but leisure and hospitality industries employed over 100,000 more than that. (And on a side note, in a state where bashing government is a time-honored tradition, government employment accounted for over 216,000 Utah jobs.)

So in terms of jobs and the state's economy, Senator Lee and his fellow western Republicans should have applauded BLM’s late Wild Lands policy. Actual economic facts show that Utah generates far more revenue when people enjoy the wilderness rather than mine or log it. 

And the Obama Administration should have stuck to its principles. Recycling is great, but not when what’s being recycled is Bush-era environmental policies.

Showing 2,827 results

Dan Rohlf | June 3, 2011

Score: Utah 2, BLM Wilderness Protection 0

Few things in politics are certain, but it’s a safe bet that Barak Obama will not carry the state of Utah in his 2012 re-election bid. But despite its dismal electoral prospects in the state, the Obama Administration knuckled under to pressure from Utah and other western Republicans this week when Secretary of Interior Ken […]

Lena Pons | June 2, 2011

New CPR White Paper Tackles Industry Myths About BPA

For the last two decades, scientists have amassed evidence that bisphenol A (BPA) poses a threat to human health. BPA is a chemical used in the manufacture of polycarbonate plastic, can liners for food and beverages, and thermal paper used for register receipts. It is used in so many applications that the Centers for Disease […]

Sidney A. Shapiro | June 2, 2011

A Teachable Moment for the Obama Administration: Sunstein Should Address Wild Estimates on Regulatory Costs, Challenge Regulatory Critics on Misleading Study on the Cost of Regulation

The Obama administration has been busy with its regulatory look-back, which required agencies to identify health, safety, and environmental standards to be reviewed in the coming months, with the possibility of eliminating or modifying them (in some cases, the specific proposal for modification or elimination was already made last week).   In explaining why the look-back […]

Daniel Farber | June 1, 2011

The Endangerment Litigation

Cross-posted from Legal Planet. I’ve just spent some time reading the initial briefs in the D.C. Circuit on the endangerment issue.  They strike me as much more political documents than legal ones. A brief recap for those who haven’t been following the legal side of the climate issue.  After the Bush Administration decided not to […]

Matt Shudtz | May 31, 2011

OSHA Releases Self-Evaluation of its Role in Federal Response to BP Oil Spill

OSHA published a report (pdf) last week on its role in the federal government’s response to last year’s massive oil spill. Within days of the blowout aboard the Deepwater Horizon, OSHA officials were in Louisiana, working to ensure that the people involved in the response and cleanup had adequate protection from the myriad hazards they would […]

Holly Doremus | May 27, 2011

The New BOEMRE-NOAA MOU: A Good Start, But More is Needed

Cross-posted from Legal Planet. I was excited to read this story in the LA Times, saying that BOEMRE and NOAA had reached an agreement that would give NOAA more say in decisions to approve offshore drilling. (Draw whatever conclusions you like about what my geeky excitement says about how boring my life must be.) This […]

Amy Sinden | May 26, 2011

Administration’s Regulatory ‘Look-Back’ Announcement Panders to Industry, Focuses Primarily on Eliminating Regs, Diverts Agencies from Crucial Work

Following up on President Obama’s January Executive Order calling for agencies to conduct a regulatory “look-back,” the Administration today released a target list of health, safety, and environmental standards to be reviewed by agencies in the coming months, with an eye toward eliminating or modifying them. The President’s January announcement was driven by politics, and […]

Rena Steinzor | May 25, 2011

Sunstein to Outline Regulatory Review Plans; Industry Yawns; Public Health and Safety Agencies Lose out from Diverted Resources

Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) Administrator Cass Sunstein heads to the American Enterprise Institute Thursday morning to speak about federal agencies’ plans to “look back” at and review existing regulations. Meanwhile, agencies statutorily obligated to protect public health and safety, such as EPA and OSHA, are diverting resources from pressing work so that […]

Thomas McGarity | May 19, 2011

The McAteer Report: A Mine Safety Blockbuster

The report issued this morning by the Governor’s Independent Investigation Panel on the West Virginia mine explosion that killed 29 miners at the Massey Energy Company’s Upper Big Branch Mine just over a year ago will never make the New York Times best seller list. But it should be required reading for all policymakers with […]