APNewsBreak: Salazar to approve Utah gas wells
By Paul Foy
Topics: From the Wires, News
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar is set to approve a major natural gas drilling project in Utah that the Obama administration says will support more than 4,000 jobs during its development while safeguarding critical wildlife habitat and air quality.
Interior officials told The Associated Press on Tuesday morning that Salazar planned to announce later in Salt Lake City the approval of up to 3,675 new gas wells over the next decade in eastern Utah.
The move comes at a time when the Obama administration is under fire from critics who say his energy plan falls short and is hurting job growth and the economy with undue opposition to new drilling. The administration says the attacks are political rhetoric and that, in fact, natural gas production in the U.S. grew by more than 7 percent in 2011, what Obama officials say is the largest year-to-year increase in history, surpassing a previous production record set in 1973.
The project will be developed by Texas-based Anadarko Petroleum Corp., which agreed to keep wells off proposed wilderness areas along the White River. It also agreed to buy lands along the river corridor for conservation easements.
The Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, the Sierra Club and the Natural Resources Defense Council said they worked to reduce the project’s impact.
Interior officials said the new wells proposed under the plan would support an annual average of 1,709 direct jobs. During development, the project would support about 4,300 jobs, officials said.
While Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, applauded Tuesday’s announcement, he also accused the Obama administration of repeatedly closing off more and more federal lands to energy production, a claim the administration has denied.
“Utahns have gotten used to the Obama Administration closing off federal lands to domestic energy production, so this announcement is a long time coming,” Hatch said. “The fact is that much more has to be done to open up more of our state’s land to development.”
___
Associated Press writer Brian Skoloff contributed to this report.
Related Stories
More Related Stories
-
Mississippi could begin prosecuting women for miscarriages
-
Teenage girl claims she was beaten up for looking like Taylor Swift
-
UK Military: London attack victim was a "model soldier"
-
Billionaire hedge funder: Babies, breast-feeding "kill" focus, keep women from succeeding
-
"Bookless library" set to open in Texas
-
2 more arrested in London attacks
-
Glenn Beck: CNN interview with atheist tornado survivor was a setup!
-
Incoming BBC news director on journalism gender gap: "We can do better"
-
Illegal construction, shoddy materials at fault in Bangladesh factory disaster
-
Ahead of Obama's speech, U.S. acknowledges four American drone killings
-
Must-see morning clip: Bill O'Reilly visits "The Daily Show"
-
Lawsuit alleges anti-gay hiring practices at ExxonMobil
-
Boy Scouts poised to vote, still greatly divided on gay youth
-
House supporters of KXL received $56m from fossil fuel industry
-
80-year-old becomes oldest to climb Mount Everest
-
Before FBI shooting man implicated self, Tsarnaev in triple murder
-
Paul McCartney backs Pussy Riot
-
UK emergency committee convenes after attack
-
Brave scout leader tried to reason with London attackers
-
If Alex Pareene were a cable news executive...
-
El Salvador court delays ruling on abortion case while woman's life hangs in the balance
Featured Slide Shows
The week in 10 pics
close X- Share on Twitter
- Share on Facebook
- Thumbnails
- Fullscreen
- 1 of 11
- Previous
- Next
-
Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
Credit: AP/LM Otero -
Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
Credit: AP/Matt Rourke -
A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher -
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
Credit: AP/Molly Riley -
Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite -
Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster -
O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid -
Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield -
When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin -
A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin -
Recent Slide Shows
- Share on Twitter
- Share on Facebook
- Thumbnails
- Fullscreen
- 1 of 11
- Previous
- Next
Related Videos
Most Read
-
Oklahoma senator: Tornado aid "totally different" from Sandy aid
Jillian Rayfield
-
Tornado survivor to Wolf Blitzer: Sorry, I'm an atheist. I don't have to thank the Lord
Mary Elizabeth Williams
-
9-year-old slams Rahm over Chicago schools
Natasha Lennard
-
Facebook's hate speech problem
Mary Elizabeth Williams
-
Inhofe and Coburn: Red state hypocrites
Joan Walsh
-
Experts: Fox News spying scandal a game-changer
Natasha Lennard
-
Brad Pitt keeps breaking his silence on how boring marriage to Jennifer Aniston was
Daniel D'Addario
-
Judge tells lesbian couple to separate -- or lose kids
Irin Carmon
-
Revenge, ego and the corruption of Wikipedia
Andrew Leonard
-
Did a Salon excerpt ruin Penn Jillette's chance to win "Celebrity Apprentice"?
Daniel D'Addario
Popular on Reddit
links from salon.com

1141 points1142 points1143 points | 537 comments

742 points743 points744 points | 188 comments
From Around the Web
Presented by Scribol
- Ancient cave paintings found in northeastern Mexico
- Russian rejects parole request by hunger-striking Pussy Riot member Maria Alyokhina
- Sevan Nisanyan: Turkish-Armenian blogger jailed for blasphemy
- Boy Scouts lift ban on openly gay boys
- Valery Giscard d'Estaing: Former French president attacked by panda


Comments are not enabled for this story.