Gee the haze over half dome sure is purty..

[Guest guest]

Gas drilling in the West threatens air at national parks

 

Air quality and visibility at more than a dozen of the nation's

oldest and most beloved national parks and monuments, including Mt.

Rushmore and Yellowstone National Park, are under threat from the

ongoing boom in natural-gas drilling in the Western U.S. Officials

from the Bureau of Land Management admit that they were ordered by

the White House to fast-track the approval of drilling plans; they

did not include any requirements to reduce the expected pollution.

Scientists from the BLM, the U.S. EPA, the National Park Service, and

the U.S. Forest Service have all expressed concerns about the

imminent pollution and the lack of any mitigation or monitoring

mechanisms. However, with demand for natural gas rising and Western

states still under the impression that their economic fortunes rest

with resource extraction, the scientists' concerns -- and a lawsuit

recently filed by four enviro groups -- are unlikely to slow the

drilling juggernaut.

 

straight to the source: Los Angeles Times, Miguel Bustillo, 29 Jan 2005

<http://grist.org/cgi-bin/forward.pl?forward_id=4164>

 

 

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