oiling the wheels of government

[Guest guest]

http://www.sltrib.com/ci_2848243

" Consultants paid by the oil and gas industry have been volunteering

to work for the Bureau of Land Management's Vernal [utah] office for

the past five months, expediting environmental studies to keep pace

with a glut of drilling requests in the region, " reports the Salt

Lake Tribune. Five consultants paid by the Independent Petroleum

Association of Mountain States are working through " a backlog of

about 400 permits. " The Vernal BLM office receives the

second-highest number of drilling applications in the country. The

office says there are " a series of safeguards ... to guarantee the

work remains objective. " But the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance,

which received details of the arrangement through a Freedom of

Information Act request, compared the industry " volunteers " to

" foxes guarding the henhouse. "

SOURCE: The Salt Lake Tribune (Utah), July 9, 2005

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