Good News (undoing Bush)

What with torture being stopped, Guantanamo scheduled to be closed, Family Planning info and funding being released, etc..... the Obama administration is off to a good start.

This Bush idea - drilling up some of the best landscapes - was completely ridiculous.

From the New York Times

Drilling Leases Scrapped in Utah

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar on Wednesday canceled leases to drill for gas and oil on 77 parcels of public land in Utah.

The leases, which cover more than 100,000 acres, including lands near Arches and Canyonlands National Parks, were auctioned in the last weeks of the Bush administration. They were among 11th-hour actions taken by the Bush Interior Department that have been criticized by environmental groups and are being reviewed by Obama officials.

In a news conference, Mr. Salazar said that after a review of the leases he concluded that the Bush administration had “rushed ahead to sell oil and gas leases at the doorstep of some of our greatest national icons, some of our nation’s most treasured landscapes” without proper scientific review or consultation.