API Statement on Utah Leases

Cathy Landry | 202-682-8122 | landryc@api.org

WASHINGTON, June 11, 2009 - The American Petroleum Institute issued the following statement on the Interior Department’s decision to comprehensively review and possibly reinstate some of the 77 Bureau of Land Management (BLM) - administered Utah leases that had been withdrawn by the Interior Department:

“While we are pleased that the Interior Department has agreed to review whether to re-instate these leases, we are concerned that the report could be used to justify inaction on development of the energy resources that are found on federal public lands in the Mountain West. Oil and gas production from these lands is essential to helping America meet its energy needs in the years and decades to come. Development of these lands also represents an important source of good-paying jobs and government revenues to the region’s economy. In May, hundreds of concerned citizens made the case to Interior Department Assistant Secretary David Hayes that this is particularly the case for rural areas such as the Uintah Basin in northeastern Utah.”