Feds get just $15K for auction of controversial oil and gas leases on sage grouse habitat

Conservation groups worried about imperiled bird had protested the sale; energy industry buys only three of nine parcels in Utah’s West Desert — at rock-bottom prices.<br>

(Courtesy of Utah Division of Wildlife Resources) The federal Bureau of Land Management on Tuesday sold leases on three of nine parcels auctioned for oil and gas development west of Nephi — near Utah’s most imperiled population of greater sage grouse.