1. Congressional proposals to open millions of acres of federal wilderness land to logging and mining are at the center of the budget stalemate between Congress and the White House. 2. Federal officials outline new wilderness lands bought with Exxon Valdez settlement money, and promise a public lands endowment. 3. He said managed logging and increased tourism on the newly opened wilderness lands would provide economic stimulus to neighboring towns. 4. If other good has arisen from the muck, it includes new standards and more wilderness land and tourism. 5. Lawmakers from oil states cite national security as grounds for a new energy bill that would allow the oil companies wide latitude to drill in wilderness lands. 6. That would create a giant loop of national parks, monuments, recreational areas and wilderness lands across northern Arizona and southern Utah. 7. The federal government set aside huge tracts of wilderness land. 8. The policy encouraged the expansion of oil and gas exploration, including in protected federal wilderness lands, greater reliance on nuclear energy and improvement of energy distribution systems. |
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