Normally when Congress heads home, things quiet down in Washington. That really isn't the case right now... particularly today when Robert Redford joined NRDC and Congressman Brian Baird (D-WA) for a press conference on the Bush administration's most recent midnight maneuver: a giveaway of Utah wilderness to their dearest friends - oil and gas companies.

Redford is not only an actor and director, but he is an environmentalist and trustee of NRDC with roots in Utah. As he said today, "you can't put a price on silence or solitude." But if the administration moves forward, hundreds of thousands of acres of Utah wilderness would be auctioned off to the highest bidder, leading to irreparable damage to our nation's most treasured landscape.

At the event today, NRDC, the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, and Earthjustice announced that it was taking legal action to stop the auction, which is scheduled to occur this Friday, December 19.

As NRDC's Sharon Buccino, the director of our land program, said this morning, "Today's lawsuit gives notice to oil and gas companies that the challenged leases may be found unlawful. Anyone buying them at Friday's sale will be proceeding at their peril."

I'm lucky to have her on my team!

The lawsuit challenges the leasing of eighty lease parcels affecting nearly 110,000 acres of some of Utah's most spectacular red rock country. Not surprisingly, the Bush Administration rushed to get these leases out the door. Tim Egan addressed this irreversible - and irresponsible - midnight maneuver in Sunday's New York Times.

While it is both saddening and infuriating to think that we could lose more than 100,000 acres of wilderness to this administration's midnight giveaway, it's uplifting to know that we have people like Robert Redford and Sharon Buccino fighting to protect our land.

With the lawsuit dropped just this morning, and only two days before the fire sale, you can help NRDC take this to court.

In the meantime, I'll be watching to see what happens...