Another last minute present from W

Gaaacckk... I really despise the Bush administration. Those guys just seem hell-bent on destroying as much as they can before they leave office. I sure hope this is one thing Obama will reverse with an executive order immediately when he takes office. Domestic drilling is fine in some places, but within sight of one of the most famous natural wonders in our country? Seriously?? Idiots.

SALT LAKE CITY — The view of Delicate Arch natural bridge _ an unspoiled landmark so iconic it's on Utah's license plates _ could one day include a drilling platform under a proposal that environmentalists call a Bush administration "fire sale" for the oil and gas industry.

Late on Election Day, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management announced a Dec. 19 auction of more than 50,000 acres of oil and gas parcels alongside or within view of Arches National Park and two other redrock national parks in Utah: Dinosaur and Canyonlands.

...

"This is the fire sale, the Bush administration's last great gift to the oil and gas industry," said Stephen Bloch, a staff attorney for the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance.

"The tracts of land offered here, next to Arches National Park or above Desolation Canyon, these are the crown jewels of America's lands that the BLM is offering to the highest bidder," he said.

An examination of the parcels, superimposing low-resolution government graphics onto Google Earth maps, shows that in one case drilling parcels bordering Arches National Park are just 1.3 miles from Delicate Arch.

Oh yes, let's please let oil companies put oil rigs right behind the Arch. Let's turn this:

Into this: