Jeremy Miller

The Bureau of Land Management approved blasting through 100-foot canyon walls at the entrance to the world's longest art gallery. So oil tankers can drive through it. Nine Mile Canyon, Utah holds more than 10,000 cultural, historical and archaeological resources, including over 1,000 known rock art sites containing more than 10,000 individual images. People have used this canyon for at least 8,000 years. The blasting happens in Gate Canyon, the entrance corridor into that gallery. Federal surveys have already found 47 historic sites along this one stretch of road alone. And it's not only the rock art. Threatened Mexican spotted owls use cliff habitat in the canyon, including areas near the proposed blasting. BLM did the minimum environmental review required and barreled ahead anyway, to move oil out of the Uinta Basin faster. Up to 1,000 vehicles a day, roughly half of them heavy tankers. This isn't BLM's first swing at this road. Duchesne County tried the same realignment in 2015 and again in 2022. Both times, public opposition killed it. This time, BLM posted it quietly in March with no public notice, denied conservation groups' request to even weigh in, and approved it in April anyway. It's the same playbook that just got this administration stopped at Big Bend National Park, except "stopped" is doing a lot of work in that sentence. There, a judge halted construction October 2nd, but only after bulldozers had already torn through the park’s grounds. A win in court doesn't un-crush what's already crushed. Three groups sued over Gate Canyon this week. But a lawsuit takes months. A blasting crew takes days. #DemsUnited 🧵