Judge approves Utah oil and gas exploration

A federal judge in Washington refused to block oil and natural gas exploration on 57,500 acres of public and private land in eastern Utah.
A coalition of environmental groups called the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, made up of regional and national organizations, said the exploration allowed by the Interior Department's Bureau of Land Management would violate the National Historic Preservation Act, among other federal laws.

The exploration includes the use of "vibrator buggies," each weighing about 62,000 pounds, to send sound waves through the ground, as well as explosives to create ground vibrations.
Though US District Judge Emmet Sullivan said the "area is rich with significant cultural and archaeological resources," he ruled that BLM persuasively argued it would not harm wilderness study areas or other important sites. BLM's cultural resource surveys "derail plaintiffs' claim of certain harm to these resources," he said.