In those cold days of last December — as Bush feverishly tried to finish crippling the nation’s environmental protections — the new day promised by Obama seemed only a flicker at the end of an 8-year tunnel.

After today’s news out of Utah, that flicker is looking more like a flare. Interior Sec. Ken Salazar announced the cancellation of oil and gas leases on 110,000 acres of public land abutting some of the West’s purest wilderness. Aside from validating Earthjustice legal action challenging those leases, the cancellation could be interpreted as the first sign of Obama turning back the Bush tide.