Two events on Tuesday, one major and one minor, may give us hints about the future of Utah's energy resources.

The big news was that for the first time, the price of oil futures closed above $100. In an era of soaring oil prices, it's essential -- and inevitable -- that Utah dig into more of its energy resources.

In a smaller but no less telling event, the Bureau of Land Management offered and sold leases for energy exploration on federal lands in Utah. The lease sale suggests energy development can be done prudently and without major impact on the most important natural areas.

The BLM auctioned off leases for 52 parcels totaling 75,615 acres in Carbon, Duchesne, Emery, Paiute, Rich, San Juan, Sanpete, Sevier, Uintah, and Wayne counties. The auction brought in $3.6 million.

Conservation groups had protested the move. "We believe the BLM has failed to conduct the necessary planning to conserve important mule deer, elk, pronghorn, sage grouse and trout habitat," said Joel Webster, a representative of the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership.

Groups decrying the sale of leases included the Wilderness Society, the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, the Sierra Club, Trout Unlimited, and other organizations. Their central claim seems to be that the BLM has failed to fully consider the impact of energy exploration and development on wilderness lands or similar terrain.

We, too, value Utah's natural gifts, but on balance we come down on the side of the BLM.

First, it doesn't seem that the agency hurried into the lease auction. It cancelled its November lease auction over concerns about the impacts of development on those lands. It also removed five parcels from the list for this week's sale. Those actions are hardly the signs of an agency disposing of lands in a fire-sale manner.

The sale must also be put into perspective. The BLM oversees 22.9 million acres of public lands -- about 42 percent of the state. The leases sold Tuesday represent about one-third of 1 percent of those lands.

Nor are those areas going to be paved over and turned into strip malls. BLM officials say they strive to work with energy companies to try to lessen the impact of drilling for gas and oil. In addition, there are vast stretches of Utah where a few gas or oil wells are visually tolerable -- from hardly noticeable down to virtually invisible.

We don't dispute the sincerity or zeal of environmentalists, or that their cause is just. We respect their fight to preserve precious lands. But BLM officials present convincing arguments that it knows how to protect the landscape while permitting some development.

Another way to look at the situation is to take a dip into the oceans of paperwork the agency prepares for any use of public land. The studies cover a vast sweep of topics, often in exhaustive detail. That, too, suggests the feds are cautious in allowing development.

Let us make no mistake: new wells are essential. It's a sort of perverse irony that the sales took place the day the price of oil futures broke $100. Our nation needs more energy from more sources. Moreover, the sputtering economy needs as many boosts as it can get, and developing domestic gas and oil wells is one way to do it.

Look at it from any angle, and it's clear that energy demand is only going to increase, and no "green" alternative is going to be sufficient to fill the gap. We think government should aggressively fund alternative energy research, but the fact remains that extraction of gas and minerals for conventional uses cannot be avoided.

Even solar power would have drawbacks. One proposal calls for solar farms covering more than 3 million square acresof the Southwest. Then a spider web of ugly power transmission lines have to be built. It seems to us that some gas and oil wells scattered around our often-desolate landscape are perhaps the least objectionable of energy alternatives. Utah is sitting on a vast reserve of natural gas and oil shale, and much of it happens to lie in areas that are not exactly top-tier natural wonders.

Certainly, energy companies shouldn't be given a blank check. We firmly believe there are vast stretches of Utah that should be guarded ferociously. All proposed energy development should be scrutinized closely.

Right now, that seems to be happening. As in so many issues, the key lies in striking a reasonable balance of competing needs. The BLM is laboring mightily to preserve Utah's landscape while helping provide the energy the United States so desperately needs.

------------------

What do you think?