Due to the large number of letters of protest, the state
of Utah has extended the deadline for comments until February 13, 2008.
Now is the time to protest before
the whole oil drilling process begins,
and it can still be stopped.


That's why I want to set up this e-mail campaigne, but feel free to give a call to Jonathan Jemming 801-537-9023
or write an e-mail of your own to : jjemming@utah.gov.

Below
is a short piece in the LATimes today.
In Salt Lake City today one of
the TV stations is shooting a segment on the situation.

Los Angeles Times Thursday, January 31, 2008

Drilling Plans Spur Art Protest
By Diane Haithman,

Artist
Nancy Holt, the widow of artist Robert Smithson, is encouraging others
in the arts world to protest plans for exploratory oil drilling in
Utah's Great Salt Lake that may have an impact on her late husband's
1,500-foot-long, 15-foot-wide environmental artwork "Spiral Jetty."

The
giant "earthwork," built in 1970 of mud, salt crystals, basalt rocks
and water on the northeastern shore of the Great Salt Lake, near Rozel
Point, is considered perhaps Smithson's most important work. Subject to
the rise and fall of the lake water level, the work was submerged for
three decades, re-emerging in 1999.

After being notified Monday
of the drilling plan by Lynn DeFreitas, director of the group Friends
of the Great Salt Lake, Holt blasted a group e-mail to artistic
colleagues urging them to send letters of protest "to save the
beautiful, natural environment around the Spiral Jetty."

In an
interview Wednesday, DeFreitas said that the proposed drilling by Pearl
Montana Exploration and Production would not call for drilling directly
into the artwork but offshore equipment could cause noise and visual
impairment in a relatively pristine area.

John Harja, director
of the governor's public lands office for the State of Utah, confirmed
Wednesday that his office had received about 160 e-mails from all over
the world, mostly from artists or art facilities, protesting the
drilling plans. He said the office had extended its deadline for public
comment on the proposal to Feb. 13 and that Pearl Montana Exploration
and Production would be taking all comments under advisement.

Story shared to us by convenant Green