Gag on This

You have to read this final report just issued by the Interior Department to appreciate the blatant disregard for the West's air quality demonstrated by the Bush Administration in its final weeks. First, some background. Late last year, I wrote a piece for High Country News that revealed the blistering critiques EPA's Rocky Mountain office had sent to Utah BLM for its shoddy (and in many cases, non-existent) air quality analysis of gas drilling projects on federal lands. In essence, the BLM's standard practice during the Bush Administration was to approve individual gas projects that numbered hundreds or thousands of wells without looking at the cumulative impact to air quality. What made this especially egregious was the slate of huge drilling projects approved in the waning months of the Administration, which I wrote about here for Mother Jones magazine. To many, the BLM's controversial lease auction in Utah around Christmas ...