They contend that the Bush administration, in its haste, failed to comply with regulations requiring it to consider the sales' effect on air quality and other environmental factors.http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-drilling-utah18-2008dec18,0,3382731.story?track=rssReporting from Denver -- Environmental groups filed a lawsuit Wednesday as a last-ditch effort to block the sale of leases for 110,000 acres of federal land in Utah that the Bush administration plans to auction off on Friday.
Critics say the proposed lease sales are an 11th-hour attempt by the administration to leave its mark on the striking, energy-rich red rock landscape of southern and eastern Utah.
The auction was announced late on election day. The National Park Service, which is routinely consulted before such announcements, was taken by surprise. The park service later objected to dozens of the sales, but the Bureau of Land Management moved ahead with plans to sell the majority of them.
The lawsuit, filed by the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, the National Resource Defense Council and five other environmental groups, contends that the Bush administration failed to comply with regulations requiring it to consider the sales' effect on air quality and other environmental factors.