There's been some good points, and some far fetched lies posted so far about this. I live on the south side of the book cliffs, and I'd dare say I spend as much time out there as anybody, certainly on the south side. Sure seeing a drill rig and gravel road through your honey hole is a bummer, what's worse is when it's made inaccessible by the BLM, with their "wilderness areas". Much of the honey holes I once had I can't get to or hunt anymore because so much of the access on the south side has been closed off. No, I'm not the lazy road hunter you want to think I may be, I put on a ton of miles hiking in places most won't go, my family has mules, and I follow a pack of hounds to places much further than I often wish. So much of our public ground has been closed that even on a mule I can't reach much of the area I would love to hunt again.
I also see a lot of people forgetting that most of the books, already once was oil field with roads to access the sites, but look at it now, it's this "magestic untouched roadless" area. Whether you enter the book cliffs roadless unit from the Sego trail head or the Ten mile Knoll trail head, you are getting in on an old oil field road. Went Ridge and Diamond Ridge both once had roads to access drill sites. Even riding across the face of the roadless you get to the old drill site at the top of Buck canyon. But what remains of these old roads is little more than a good horse trail. So to think that putting in a road now will forever ruin the area is nonsense.
Let's look outside of the "roadless". The places with the most existing oil field activity are often the areas the animals prefer. If you've ever driven the divide road of the book cliffs early in the spring you will know that the wildlife love the green vegetation that the pipeline provides. If you haven't seen this then you likely don't spend enough time on the books for you to even have an opinion on the drilling activity. How about the low country? Nash has always been by far the best winter range, with the most deer, on the side south. It also has the most existing oil field activity, and has for a long time. The deer don't seem to be bothered by it, in fact they often benefit from the roads that are there, as an easier way to travel when we have the winters with deep snow. If we want to complain about habitat being ruined, look at the Nash Wash WMA. The DWR has done an embarrassing job with what once wash a great working cattle ranch as well as great winter range habitat. There used to be lush fields providing food for wildlife, it's little more than dirt flats now. Every year I see fewer deer using this land that the DWR is supposedly using to benefit them. They've spend all kinds of time and money on signs to make sure you know just who is responsible for the lack of habitat they have provided.
There is so much of this unit that has been closed off that it has forced much of the hunting pressure as well as general public use into smaller areas, not only damaging the experience of everyone because of the crowds but also hurting wildlife management techniques.
Much of this area, like the rest of the country, could also see a major benefit from any kind of boost to the economy.
If you're concerned about your public lands, that's great. But as someone who spends 3 days every week on the Books, somewhere or another, overall I am very excited about what the drilling would bring.
