The U.S. Bureau of Land Management on Friday released its final environmental impact statement and proposed land-use plan for 2.5 million acres in Carbon and Emery counties that emphasizes an energy economy.

At the same time, it eliminated virtually any possibility that nearly 1 million acres previously found to have wilderness traits would ever be managed or protected as such.

Carbon County Commissioner Bill Krompel hadn't seen the proposed resource-management plan on Friday, but said the county absolutely depends on energy revenues for its current needs and as a source of other types of employment when the oil and gas are gone.

"If you look at the top 10 property taxpayers in Carbon County, nine of them are natural gas or coal," he said. Added to mineral-lease royalties and severance taxes that benefit the region and the state, "that's millions and millions of dollars," he said.

Rural energy-rich counties have trust funds to sock away the money for the time when the coal, oil and gas run out. "All the rural counties must diversify our economy," Krompel said.

The BLM Price field office released its draft management plan four years ago. Last year, due to a federal court order, the BLM wrote a supplement that took a new look at 937,000 acres of wilderness-quality lands. The agency had found the lands worthy of protection in a repeat survey a decade ago but never added to the list of designated wilderness study areas established in the 1970s.

The final environmental study includes just 97,000 acres of the wilderness-quality lands - which still will be open to off-road vehicle recreation and oil and gas drilling, with certain restrictions.

"Both ORV and drilling are going to destroy wilderness characteristics," said Nada Culver, senior counsel for The Wilderness Society. "There is no prohibition on new roads."

A Bush administration study released in May re-emphasized policies established in 2000 that would speed carbon-based energy development with minimal restraints unless federal public-land managers found it "absolutely necessary" to preserve other resources.

The Bush policy broadly defines "obstacles" to drilling, which include well-established environmental protection law, municipal development, private-property concerns, wildlife and even national parks.

And that's the policy that guided the BLM in the Price study's proposal for wilderness-quality lands and motorized off-road travel, said field office associate director Mike Stiewig.

The Energy Policy and Conservation Act "does direct us to try to develop our high-potential areas," he said. "It's not a matter of right or wrong, whether I believe in it or not. That is what the current position is."

Maybe so, said Liz Thomas, an attorney with the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance. But to her, the policy contradicts fundamental BLM legal requirements, which direct the BLM to minimize harm and user conflict while planning for public use of the land that belongs to all.

"Protect first, then minimize," Thomas said. "Providing access [must] come under those two caveats."

Read the BLM's blueprint online

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management has released a three-volume proposal to manage 2.5 million acres of public land in Carbon and Emery counties, with a heavy emphasis on energy development.

The region is known for its redrock beauty, Nine Mile Canyon, wildlife habitat and archaeological treasures.

There is no public comment period, though protests may be filed in the next 30 days.

For the full report: www.blm.gov/ut/st/en/fo/

price/planning.html

"If you look at the top 10 property taxpayers in Carbon County, nine of them are natural gas or coal."

BILL KROMPEL

Carbon County commissioner