Red Desert Protection Update

by Mac Blewer

On June 5, Wyoming Governor Jim Geringer petitioned the U.S. Interior Department to reverse a directive by former Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt that would protect some of the Red Desert's most unique natural features, cultural history and wildlife from rampant oil and gas development.

After his visit to Wyoming last November, Babbitt directed the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to rewrite its draft management plan for the 600,000-acre Jack Morrow Hills Study Area of the Red Desert and to adopt a conservation alternative as its preferred action.

The governor said that Babbitt's directive "should be thrown out to allow BLM to continue as planned with the Jack Morrow Hills environmental impact statement," claiming that Babbitt had "circumvented the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) by arbitrarily ordering a change in the preferred alternative..." Geringer charged that Babbitt's action "was the final act of arrogance in the twilight of an outgoing administration."

WOC executive director Dan Heilig responded: "NEPA clearly envisions changes to environmental documents based on public comment, including the development of new alternatives. To now demand that Interior Secretary Gale Norton reverse course on the Red Desert asks her to ignore the overwhelming majority of public comments that support protection of this nationally significant landscape."

Heilig noted that the Wyoming BLM received more than 12,000 public comments on its draft plan for the Jack Morrow Hills, the largest number ever received in agency history for a planning project. More than 90 percent of the comments called for protecting the area from large-scale industrialization.

Ironically, by asking Interior Secretary Norton to rescind Babbitt's directive, the governor is asking her to act in the same "arbitrary and capricious manner" that he accuses Babbitt of doing. Through his action, the governor has guaranteed a longer struggle for the Jack Morrow Hills and created a potential legal and public-relations nightmare for the Interior Department.