Youth urge governor to oppose oil and gas sale

Utah youth say the Bureau of Land Management “has failed to listen to us” and delivered a letter to Governor Gary Herbert on March 25 urging him to oppose oil and gas sales on public lands.

Utah Youth for Environmental Solutions, Uplift and students across Utah say they have support from the Utah Chapter Sierra Club, Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, Center for Biological Diversity and the Wasatch Rising Tide.

A press release says the students delivered the letter, with over 1,000 signatures, to the Governor’s Office in Salt Lake City on March 25, the day the Bureau of Land Management began its March oil and gas lease sale in Utah.

“We are scared for our future. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, society has less than 12 years to shift away from fossil fuels to prevent catastrophe,” the students’ letter says. “Rather than continue with business as usual, we need you to defend our future. Utah has the youngest population in the nation. We young people will inherit a fundamentally altered, destabilized world. Our health and wellbeing are at stake. Please, help give us a voice and ask the BLM to defer the parcels in the March lease sale.”

Letter addresses global warming, climate change