Bush Administration to Open Public Lands Near Utah's National Parks for Natural Gas and Oil Drilling

There is no doubt that the Bushies will go down in history as the administration with the least environmentally-friendly record (among other dubious distinctions).

Having already gutted the Endangered Species Act, denied the existence of climate change and vehemently resisted efforts to regulate greenhouse gas emissions, it is not as if the president has been trying especially hard to rehabilitate his dismal reputation.

Last Friday, we learned of the Bush administration's latest environmental hit job, courtesy of The New York Times' Felicity Barringer: a plan by the Bureau of Land Management to open tens of thousands of acres on or near the borders of three national parks in eastern Utah, including Arches National Park and Canyonlands National Park, to drilling.