Houston (Platts)--10Nov2008

The head of US President-elect Barack Obama's transition team on Sunday
said the new administration would roll back a Bush administration decision to
open up to oil and gas exploration some "of the most sensitive, fragile lands
in Utah."

John Podesta, in an interview on Fox News Sunday, said the incoming Obama
administration would take executive action to reverse a number of decisions
the Bush administration has taken in its waning days.

"They want to have oil and gas drilling in some of the most sensitive,
fragile lands in Utah that they're going to try to do right as [they're]
walking out the door. I think that's a mistake," Podesta said.

Podesta did not specify what Utah plans he was referring to, however, on
October 31, the Bureau of Land Management finalized five resource management
plans for parts of Utah, making more than 80% of the planning areas' 8.65
million acres available to some form of oil and gas drilling.

The move has attracted criticism from environmental groups and some
lawmakers for the potential damage it could cause to pristine wilderness.

In addition, on November 4, BLM's Utah state office posted a proposed
list of parcels for its quarterly oil and gas lease sale--scheduled for
December 19 in Salt Lake City. The sale includes 241 proposed oil and gas
parcels totaling 359,450 acres.

The National Parks Service has called on the BLM to delay the lease sale
because a number of the proposed sites are close to Arches and Canyonlands
National Parks and the Dinosaur National Monument, and the parks service is
concerned that energy development in these areas could have negative impacts
on air, water and wildlife.

"On a number of areas, you see the Bush administration even today moving
aggressively to do things that I think are probably not in the interest of the
country," Podesta said in the interview.

"There's a lot that the president can do using his executive authority
without waiting for congressional action, and I think we'll see [Obama] do
that to try to restore the -- a sense that the country is working on behalf of
the common good," he said.

--Jim Magill, jim_magill@platts.com