Media Advisory, September 10, 2018

Contacts: Carly Ferro, Sierra Club, (801) 467-9294, Carly.Ferro@sierraclub.org

Ryan Beam, Center for Biological Diversity, (928) 853-9929, rbeam@biologicaldiversity.org

Steve Bloch, Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, (801) 428-3981, steve@suwa.org

Utahns to Protest Trump Administration's Oil, Gas Lease Auction on Tuesday

200,000 Acres to Be Offered for Fracking, Including Area Near Canyonlands

SALT LAKE CITY― Opponents of the Trump administration’s plan to lease more than 200,000 acres of public lands for fracking near some of Utah’s most beloved landscapes will rally Tuesday in front of the Bureau of Land Management’s Salt Lake City office. The online lease sale begins Tuesday.

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke’s BLM wants to allow oil and gas extraction within 10 miles of Canyonlands National Park and Glen Canyon National Recreation Area and in the San Rafael Desert near popular rafting stretches along the Green River.

This lease sale is part of a larger agenda by Trump and Zinke to ramp up fossil-fuel extraction on public lands, threatening wildlife, public health and the climate. Zinke has also rewritten policies to shorten public-comment periods and avoid substantive environmental reviews.

What: Protest against BLM’s plans to lease public lands in Utah for oil and gas drilling and fracking.

When: Tuesday, Sept. 11, 12:15 p.m. to 1 p.m.

Where: Outside the Bureau of Land Management office, 440 W. 200 S., Salt Lake City, Utah

Who: Utah Chapter of the Sierra Club, Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance and Center for Biological Diversity

Media Availability: Speakers will be available for interviews before and after the event.

Background: Despite increasing concerns about climate change and damage to wildlife habitats, about 90 percent of federal public lands in the West are available for oil and gas leasing. Federal oil and gas leasing commits millions of acres of public land to fossil fuel industrialization that pollutes the air and water, destroys habitat for sensitive and endangered wildlife and threatens public health.