Read the following passage from The Washington Post (November 25, 1997), page A19. Then, for each of the numbered expressions, label the main argumentative move, if any, using the same abbreviations as in Exercise I:
A PIECE OF "GOD'S HANDIWORK"
by Robert Redford
Just over a year ago, President Clinton created the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument to [1] protect [2] once and for all some [3] of Utah's extraordinary red rock canyon country. In response to [4] plans of the Dutch company Andalex to mine coal on the Kaiparowits Plateau, President Clinton used his authority under the Antiquities Act to establish the new monument, setting aside for protection what he described as "some of the most remarkable land in the world." I couldn't agree more. [5] For over two decades, many have fought battle after battle [6] to keep mining conglomerates from despoiling [7] the unique treasures [8] of this stunning red rock canyon country. Now [9], we thought at least some of it was safe.
Not so. Shocking [10] as it sounds, Clinton's Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has approved oil drilling within the monument. BLM has given Conoco Inc., a subsidiary of the corporate giant DuPont, permission to drill for oil and gas in the heart [11] of the new monument. You may [12] wonder, as I do, how can this happen? [13] Wasn't the whole purpose of creating the monument to preserve its colorful cliffs, sweeping arches and other extraordinary resources [14] from large-scale mineral development? Didn't the president say he was saving [15] these lands from mining companies for our children and grandchildren?
The BLM says its hands are tied. [16] Why? Because [17] these lands were set aside subject to "valid existing rights," and Conoco has a lease that gives it the right to drill. Sure [18] Conoco has a lease-more than one, in fact [19]but [20] those leases were originally issued without sufficient environmental study or public input. As a result [21], none of them conveyed a valid right to drill. What's more [22], in deciding to issue a permit to drill now, the BLM did not conduct a full analysis of the environmental impacts of drilling in these incomparable lands, but instead [23] determined there would be no significant environmental harm on the basis of an abbreviated review that didn't even look at drilling on the other federal leases.
Sounds like [24] Washington double-speak [25] to me. I've spent considerable time on these extraordinary lands for years, and I know [26] that an oil rig in their midst would have a major impact. What's more [27], Conoco wants to drill a well to find oil. Inevitably [28], more rigs, more roads, new pipelines, toxic [29] wastes and bright lights would follow to get the oil out. The BLM couldn't see this, but [30] the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Environmental Protection Agency did. Both of those agencies recognized [31] the devastating [32] effects extensive oil drilling would have on this area and urged the BLM to refuse to allow it, in order to [33] protect the monument.
Maybe [34] the problem [35] comes from giving management responsibility for this monument to the BLM. This is the BLM's first national monument; almost [36] all the others are managed by the National Park Service. The Park Service's mission is to protect the resources [37] under its care while the bureau has always sought to accommodate economic uses of those under its. Even so [38], the BLM seemed [39] to be getting off to a good [40] start by enlisting broad [41] public involvement in developing a management plan for the area. Yet [42] the agency's decision to allow oil drilling in the monument completely undercuts [43] this process just as it is beginning.
What we're talking about is, in the words of President Clinton, a small piece of "God's handiwork." Almost [44] $4^1 / 2$ million acres of irreplaceable red rock wilderness remain outside the monument. Let us at least protect what is within it. The many roadless [45] areas within the monument should [46] remain so-protected as wilderness. The monument's designation means little if [47] a pattern of exploitation is allowed to continue.
Environmentalists-including the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, the Natural Resources Defense Council, and the Wilderness Society-appealed BLM's decision to the Interior Department's Board of Land Appeals. This appeal, however [48], was rejected earlier this month. This is a terrible mistake [49]. We shouldn't be drilling in our national monuments. Period. As President Clinton said when dedicating the new monument, "Sometimes progress is measured in mastering frontiers, but sometimes [50] we must measure progress in protecting frontiers for our children and children to come."
Allowing drilling to go forward in the Grand Staircase-Escalante Monument would permanently stain what might otherwise have been a defining legacy of the Clinton presidency.