DENVER — Bidders at a federal auction Friday snapped up oil and gas leases in Utah's red-rock country, despite a legal challenge that ultimately could prevent them from drilling there.
Companies paid $48 to $270 an acre, buying up leases on 88% of the offered parcels.
The auction, which netted $7.4 million, was briefly halted Friday afternoon when authorities grew suspicious of two bidders suspected of being environmental activists who had no intention of paying.
They outbid competitors for a number of leases before officials detained them.
Critics of the auction, including actor Robert Redford, have branded the sale as a last-ditch effort by the Bush administration to allow energy development on public lands before the president leaves office. Conservationists contend that some of the parcels are too close to national parks and that federal officials have not considered the effects drilling would have on air quality and other environmental factors.
Environmental groups filed suit this week to block the sale. But late Thursday, they struck an agreement with the Bureau of Land Management that allowed the auction to proceed as long as the leases were not issued for 30 days, giving a federal judge time to consider whether the leases should go forward.
The 30-day period ends Jan. 19 -- Bush's last full day in office.
The judge said he intended to rule before that date, said Stephen Bloch, conservation director for the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, which is a party to the lawsuit.
BLM officials have defended the sales as part of their obligation to open federal lands to energy development in an attempt to reduce dependence on foreign oil.
"And let's not forget what energy industry jobs mean to local economies," BLM's Utah Director Selma Sierra said in a written statement.
She noted that because "oil and gas exploration is costly and highly speculative," about 6% of leases actually result in drilling.
The bureau originally planned to lease 360,000 acres in southern and eastern Utah, but it reduced that number to 132,000 acres after weeks of criticism from environmental groups and the National Park Service. It withdrew some proposed leases next to Arches National Park, on a golf course in the town of Moab and beneath the rim of Nine-Mile Canyon, which is lined with ancient Native American rock art.
