National Parks Marginally Escape Bush’s Last-Minute Leasing Program

If your blood boiled when you heard about President Bush’s plans to allow oil and gas drilling and the construction of coal-fired power plants within polluting distance of Utah’s most cherished natural lands—including Flaming Gorge Recreation Area, Arches, Capitol Reef and Canyonlands National Parks, and Grand Staircase-Escalante and Dinosaur National Monuments—you may be relieved to know that the most sensitive lands, at least, are no longer on the auction block.