Secretary Dirk Kempthorne
Department of the Interior
1849 C Street, NW
Washington, DC 20240

RE: Cancel public lands oil and gas leasing plan!

Dear Secretary Kempthorne ,

I am very disturbed that the Bureau of Land Management and oil and gas industry plan to drill more than 118,000 new wells on public lands in the West over the next two decades. I want you to know that I oppose this wanton leasing program and I strongly urge you to immediately and permanently cancel it.

This alarming concentration on oil and gas development comes with a huge price tag of degraded wildlife habitat and polluted air and water. At risk are municipal watersheds, proposed wilderness, and remarkable places like Wyoming's Upper Green River Valley, an irreplaceable big game migration corridor.

Yes, there are places in America where oil and gas development can take place, but those areas must be carefully selected and developed with the highest environmental safeguards. This shortsighted plan to benefit industry comes at a time when the courts, the GAO and even the Bureau of Land Management have indicated that leasing cannot take place on such a scale and be done responsibly.

America needs an energy policy that will wean us from our dependence on fossil fuels by encouraging the more efficient use of our energy resources and the development of clean and safe alternative technologies. I join millions of Americans in expecting you, as the steward of American lands, to take action to protect our wild and special places from being degraded by inappropriate exploitation.

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