On Wednesday, Interior outlined a proposal to allow oil and gas development beneath the Ouray National Wildlife Refuge, reversing limits on drilling last affirmed during the George W. Bush administration. The change would come through an amendment to BLM's Vernal, Utah, Resource Management Plan, finalized in 2008, which currently bars any access to oil and gas under the refuge.
Situated on the Green River within northeast Utah's oil- and gas-rich Uintah Basin, the Ouray refuge would remain off-limits to surface facilities while allowing underground development. The draft amendment says companies could reach roughly 5,200 acres of federally administered minerals under the nearly 12,000 acre refuge, but only by drilling from outside the boundary under a no surface occupancy stipulation.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service regards Ouray as a sanctuary for migratory birds. It also notes there are about 1,700 active oil wells across roughly 100 national wildlife refuges, the bulk of which exist because they predate the refuges or draw from privately held minerals outside federal control in split-estate arrangements.
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In an unsigned Wednesday email, BLM said the move to open the refuge is consistent with President Donald Trump's executive order that calls for "unleashing American energy." When asked to justify the move, the bureau pointed to fossil fuels generating $3 billion in economic benefits for Utah and contributing $177 billion to the U.S. economy.
This proposal is part of a larger package under the administration's "energy dominance" banner: moves to open Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling; to remove Endangered Species Act review from offshore projects in the Gulf of Mexico; to make millions of acres in Alaska available for drilling; and to cut royalty rates while easing air-quality rules and other environmental safeguards.
Calling the move "heartbreaking," Randi Spivak of the Center for Biological Diversity, who serves as public lands director, said it would allow oil and gas drillers access to the Ouray National Wildlife Refuge. "This refuge was legally established to be an inviolate sanctuary for migratory birds, we will fight this drilling expansion every step of the way."