"Some Oil- and Gas-Drilling Leases May Be Reinstated"

"Under pressure from Republican lawmakers, the administration is considering whether to reinstate more than a third of the 77 oil- and gas-drilling leases near national parks in the Mountain West that it blocked shortly after President Obama took office.

In a report released Thursday, the Interior Department criticized the process under which those leases were auctioned in the waning days of the George W. Bush administration. But the report also opened the door for the department to reinstate or re-auction 30 leases on parcels that lie in existing oil and gas development areas or are 'not near particularly sensitive landscapes.'"

Jim Tankersley and Nicholas Riccardi report for the Los Angeles Times June 12, 2009.