People News

Robert Redford petitions Utah to save Bryce Canyon

By April MacIntyre Dec 14, 2010, 3:23 GMT

10/05/2009 - Robert Redford and Nancy Pelosi - 2009 Americans for the Arts Annual National Arts Awards Gala - Arrivals - Cipriani 42nd Street, 110 East 42nd Street - New York City, NY, USA © Sylvain Gaboury / PR Photos

Robert Redford is furious over a coal strip mine being gouged out just a few miles from Bryce Canyon. The NRDC trustee posted his opinion on OnEarth 

An Excerpt:

"Utah Approves a Mine Next to Bryce Canyon for Coal America Doesn't Need

Imagine: A massive open-pit coal mine next to a wilderness jewel. A scenario like that might have been routine in the past, but this is the 21st century, when many cleaner, more sustainable ways to power our economy abound. We no longer have to sacrifice an iconic landscape in order to burn some dirty rocks.

And yet a mining company got approval last month to open Utah's first-ever strip mine for coal in the small community of Alton. Few new coal mines have opened in the West in the past decade since most developers focus on expanding existing mines, not reaching into untouched wilderness. And that's what makes this mine so troubling: it will be located 10 miles from Bryce Canyon National Park.

The truth is we don't need this coal. The developers claim they have a contract with a Utah utility, but they won't disclose which one. It's questionable whether local utilities even have the need for such sizeable quantities of coal. Instead, rumors indicate that a lot of the coal will be hauled to a West Coast port for shipping, possibly overseas. If the company is so confident there is a market for its product, it should name its buyers.

The West has a long history of outside companies extracting local resources, selling them elsewhere, and leaving nearby communities to clean up the mess often at taxpayer expense. No matter what they might tell you, there is no reclamation plan that can return on open pit mine to a natural, wild state. Once that untamed spirit is gone, it's gone for good

Some places are simply too special to industrialize. Bryce country is one of them."

Redford goes on to extoll the virtues of Utah's Bryce country, where "pink and orange rock fins that gracefully descend into the canyon, sandstone spires that seem sculpted by a giant's hand, and soaring ponderosa pines that add a splash of green to the red canyon walls" are found, according to the actor.

Redford argues that the beauty "is what tens of thousands of people come to Bryce Canyon National Park each year to see."

In closing Redford calls upon people to make their voices heard and tell Governor Herbert to stop the coal mine.