Gov. Gary Herbert, among others, applauded the agreement last week between energy company Bill Barrett Corp. and the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (SUWA) that allows for natural gas drilling while protecting sensitive archaeological areas in Nine Mile Canyon.

“Energy production and environmental stewardship can coexist, and this agreement provides a model under which it can happen,” Herbert said.

But at a June 23 hearing before the Legislature’s Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment Interim Committee, Bill Barrett Corp.’s Duane Zavadil was explaining to lawmakers the details of the pending deal when Rep. Mike Noel, R-Kanab, went on a tirade about doing any negotiating with SUWA.

Noel, as heard on an audiotape of the hearing, told Zavadil that SUWA was a radical, outside group that was an “enemy of the state and the people and the children of Utah,” noting the battles he has had with the group over local control of roads on federal land.

At one point, committee co-chairman Roger Barrus, R-Centerville, interrupted Noel to ask him if his comments were germane to the topic. That didn’t slow Noel down a bit, claiming they “absolutely” were germane.

While the agreement between SUWA and the energy company has been hailed as an example of compromise without resorting to lawsuits, Noel was the only member of the committee to suggest there should be no negotiating with “radical” environmentalists like SUWA.

Noel also is the only member of the Legislature who has been appointed to Herbert’s Balanced Resource Council, which the governor described as an effort to end bickering and find common ground. “I believe we need everyone at the table, even if we don’t agree,” Herbert said when he formed the council last spring.

Even enemies of the people and the children of Utah?

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I.D. thieves and petitions? » Last week I wrote about Dave Phillips, of Parowan, receiving letters from Sen. Orrin Hatch thanking him for his positions on terrorism and the Fairness Doctrine and letting him know the senator was doing all he could to achieve the goals Phillips desired. As I said in that column, Phillips claims he never sent Hatch anything on those issues.

But Hatch’s office produced petitions sent to Hatch on both those issues containing Phillips’ signature.

Phillips says he has signed petitions on other issues and believes his name was hijacked for those two particular issues, which he insists he never authorized. He has been the victim of identity theft in the past, he said.

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Just not worth it? » The number of lobbyists accompanying Utah legislators to the National Conference of State Legislatures in Louisville, Ky., last week was substantially down from past conventions, sources say. In fact, at the annual State Dinner at the convention, there were just slightly more than a dozen lobbyists in attendance, compared to the usual 25 to 30.

Here’s a hint as to why: New reporting laws for lobbyists require them to name legislators they spend more than $10 wining and dining. Legislators don’t particularly like to be named as acceptors of largesse. So if the lobbyists can’t isolate a couple of lawmakers for persuasion while treating them to duck confit, it’s just not worth the plane trip.

prolly@sltrib.com