Change!… Team Obama Scraps Oil and Gas Leases In Utah (Video)

Barack Obama wrote today about “The Actions America Needs” including a strategy to free America from its dependence on foreign oil.

But, actions speak louder than words.

Yesterday, Barack Obama’s Interior Secretary Ken Salazar cancelled oil and gas leases on 77 parcels of land in Utah. This will most likely end the possibility of any drilling and hope for any income or new jobs in the area.
Rather than develop domestic resources of energy here at home, the Obama Administration just cancelled development of oil and gas reserves in Utah.
Channel 2 in Utah reported the news:

KUTV 2 Reports Interior Secretary Ken Salazar through the Bureau of Land Management made the order reversing Bush policy, costing many potential jobs in Utah.
The Star-Tribune reported on this job-killing move:

SALT LAKE CITY – In a high-profile reversal of the Bush administration, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said Wednesday the government is scrapping the leases of 77 parcels of federal land for oil and gas drilling in Utah’s redrock country.

“In the last weeks in office, the Bush administration rushed ahead to sell oil and gas leases near some of our nation’s most precious landscapes in Utah,” Salazar said from Washington in a teleconference call with reporters.

He said he had ordered the Bureau of Land Management, which is part of the Interior Department, to not cash checks from winning bidders for parcels at issue in a lawsuit filed by environmental groups.

The sales were worth $6 million to the government in addition to royalties on any oil or gas production.

“We will take time and a fresh look at these 77 parcels to see if they are appropriate for oil and gas development,” Salazar said.

A federal judge put the sale of the 77 parcels, totaling about 100,000 acres, on hold last month until the lawsuit was resolved. Now, Salazar is refusing to sell any of them — at least until the new administration reviews them.

For decades, Democrats have blocked efforts to responsibly develop the energy resources our country possesses, transforming vast areas of opportunity into “The No Zone.”

Over the past 30 years:

Democrats have blocked the development of new sources of petroleum.
Democrats have blocked drilling in ANWR.
Democrats have blocked drilling off the coast of Florida.
Democrats have blocked drilling off of the east coast.
Democrats have blocked drilling off of the west coast.
Democrats have blocked drilling off the Alaskan coast.
Democrats have blocked building oil refineries.
Democrats have blocked clean nuclear energy production.
Democrats have blocked clean coal production.

So, is it really surprising that democrats opened the 111th Congress by introducing a bill to permanently prohibit drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) and then followed that up by prohibiting oil and gas production in Utah?

Remember this the next time gas prices climb to $4.00 per gallon.

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Jim Hoft is the founder and editor of The Gateway Pundit, one of the top conservative news outlets in America. Jim was awarded the Reed Irvine Accuracy in Media Award in 2013 and is the proud recipient of the Breitbart Award for Excellence in Online Journalism from the Americans for Prosperity Foundation in May 2016. In 2023, The Gateway Pundit received the Most Trusted Print Media Award at the American Liberty Awards.

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