Sale of oil leases worries Utahans Associated Press
In two days this month, the BLM sold oil and gas leases on more than a half-million acres in Utah and Colorado. It was the largest quarterly lease sale in Utah’s history.

Those leases could lead to drilling rigs showing up on the doorstep of Capitol Reef National Park, near popular rafting areas on the Green and San Juan rivers and adjacent to world-renowned Indian ruins and rock art in Nine Mile Canyon, all areas in rural Utah. …

The lease sales in Utah on May 16 covered 361,692 acres; those in Colorado on May 11 covered 154,903 acres. Together, they netted almost $61 million for the government. The dozens of energy companies buying the leases must still apply for drilling permits before production can begin. …

In Colorado, nine of the 148 parcels that were leased in May – about 14,000 acres out of nearly 155,000 acres – include areas where state and federal wildlife agencies are trying to reintroduce the black-footed ferret.