{"id":21025,"date":"2018-01-16T08:36:42","date_gmt":"2018-01-16T15:36:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lastbestnews.com\/site\/?p=21025"},"modified":"2018-01-16T08:36:42","modified_gmt":"2018-01-16T15:36:42","slug":"groups-protest-oil-leases-near-yellowstone-river","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/2018\/01\/groups-protest-oil-leases-near-yellowstone-river\/","title":{"rendered":"Groups protest oil leases near Yellowstone River"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Yellowstone\"<\/a>

Visit Montana<\/p>

The Yellowstone River near Livingston.<\/p><\/div>\n

A handful of conservation groups and Montana landowners are protesting several oil and gas leases offered by the Bureau of Land Management along the banks of the Yellowstone River.<\/p>\n

Opponents said the leases aren\u2019t suitable for the area, which relies on revenue generated by tourism and outdoor recreation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese leases could open the door for the oil and gas industry to frack and drill on the edge of our community,\u201d said Michelle Uberuaga with the Park County Environmental Council. \u201cOil and gas development in this area could have significant impacts to the Yellowstone River, our public health and the community. This is clearly not the best or highest use of our public resources.\u201d<\/p>\n

The BLM plans to offer 109 leases in western and central Montana this March during its quarterly sale.<\/p>\n

Those leases include areas just south of the Yellowstone River, as well as others on the boundary of the Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument. Opponents view the BLM\u2019s encroachment on such valued public lands as a one-sided approach to the Interior Department\u2019s new oil and gas strategy.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis lease-everything-everywhere approach shows that Interior\u2019s \u2018energy dominance\u2019 agenda means a direct assault on cherished Montana landscapes and recreational assets,\u201d said Peter Aengst, the Wilderness Society\u2019s regional director. \u201cIt threatens the outdoor economy they support.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"CapreAir_Variable\"<\/a><\/div><\/div>Area business and property owners have also joined the protest, with some opposing what they fear will turn Livingston into a \u201cmini Williston,\u201d a reference to the North Dakota oil and gas boom town.<\/p>\n

Tourism and agriculture are the two biggest economic drivers in Park County\u2019s economy, and public lands play a vital role in supporting both sectors, opponents said.<\/p>\n

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke “understands the importance of public lands to Park County residents, and we urge him to take the same approach he has taken with the gold mines in Paradise Valley,\u201d said Dan Vermillion of Sweetwater Travel. \u201cWe urge him to cancel these leases.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last spring, Zinke proposed a ban on new gold mining claims on public lands near Yellowstone National Park and said he would consider blocking other types of mining.<\/p>\n

Opponents of the lease sale said the wild lands and clean water surrounding Yellowstone National Park, including the Yellowstone River\u2019s upper reaches, sustain the area\u2019s economy.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy business depends on people that visit these wild places and hope to catch a fish or see a bear,\u201d said Dan Sullivan, owner of Mustang Fresh Foods. \u201cThe BLM has the responsibility to manage these lands for all Americans, not for oil and gas developers.\u201d<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on\u00a0Missoula Current<\/a>, an independent online newspaper, of which\u00a0Martin Kidston is the founding editor.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A handful of conservation groups and Montana landowners are protesting several oil and gas leases offered by the Bureau of Land Management along the banks of the Yellowstone River. Opponents said the leases aren\u2019t suitable for the area, which relies on revenue generated by tourism and outdoor recreation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":97,"featured_media":21026,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,14],"tags":[109,6653,6654,39],"class_list":["post-21025","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-montana","category-news","tag-bureau-of-land-management","tag-park-county-environmental-council","tag-wilderness-society","tag-yellowstone-river","prominence-category-featured"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21025","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/97"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21025"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21025\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21027,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21025\/revisions\/21027"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21026"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21025"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21025"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21025"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}