Current:Home > InvestJudge Orders Oil and Gas Leases in Wyoming to Proceed After Updated BLM Environmental Analysis-LoTradeCoin
Judge Orders Oil and Gas Leases in Wyoming to Proceed After Updated BLM Environmental Analysis
lotradecoin ecosystem development roadmap View Date:2024-12-25 12:47:18
The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia this month allowed the sale of leases for oil and gas drilling on almost 120,000 acres of public land in Wyoming. The ruling comes three months after the same court determined that the Bureau of Land Management had failed to adequately tie the environmental impacts from proposed oil and gas drilling to its decision to hold a lease auction, placing the sale agreements on hold.
Before proceeding with the sale, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) had to explain more thoroughly how the emissions from the Wyoming oil and gas extracted with the leases, which “in its own telling, carry a hefty price tag in terms of social cost,” affected the agency’s decision-making, wrote Judge Christopher Cooper in his March decision. As part of the order released July 16, and to avoid any environmental damage, the agency must “pause approval of any new drilling permits or surface disturbing activities on the leased parcels,” until it has finished fleshing out its environmental assessment, the court said.
Despite the pause, Western Energy Alliance, an oil and gas industry trade group, celebrated the new ruling as “another significant victory” in a prepared statement. “Lease [cancellation] is not necessary,” said Kathleen Sgamma, president of the Alliance. “The environmental analysis paperwork can be corrected within a reasonable time period.”
Explore the latest news about what’s at stake for the climate during this election season.
After President Biden’s executive order suspending new oil and gas lease sales on federal lands was overturned by a federal judge in 2021, the BLM held its initial lease auctions under the current administration in 2022. Wyoming’s sale, which contained 122 parcels of land and was over 40 times the area of the next largest auction in the West, immediately drew the ire of environmental groups, which, led by the Wilderness Society, sued to block the sales.
The organizations were concerned the leases from Wyoming would pollute aquifers and sources of drinking water, upset critical habitats for mule deer and sage grouse and exacerbate the volume of planet-warming greenhouse gases Wyoming emits into the atmosphere. While they were pleased that the court found the conservation groups “raised credible concerns” on all those fronts, “we’re obviously disappointed the leases themselves weren’t vacated as a remedy,” said Ben Tettlebaum, director and senior attorney of the Wilderness Society. He added that he was pleased the court stayed drilling until the BLM adjusts its environmental analysis.
Though drilling will eventually commence on these lands, Tettlebaum said he did not regret bringing the suit. The precedent set in the March ruling, which also established that the agency’s current approach to regulating the industry may not thoroughly protect aquifers from contamination, would help ensure the BLM “doesn’t rely on outdated science and resource management plans” moving forward, he said.
The Wilderness Society will keep monitoring BLM oil and gas leases and their environmental analysis, Tettlebaum said. “We’ll continue to watch and [we] look forward, as we always do, [to] working with the agency to make sure it does adequately analyze these important impacts.”
The BLM has until January 12, 2025, to finalize its environmental assessment.
About This Story
Perhaps you noticed: This story, like all the news we publish, is free to read. That’s because Inside Climate News is a 501c3 nonprofit organization. We do not charge a subscription fee, lock our news behind a paywall, or clutter our website with ads. We make our news on climate and the environment freely available to you and anyone who wants it.
That’s not all. We also share our news for free with scores of other media organizations around the country. Many of them can’t afford to do environmental journalism of their own. We’ve built bureaus from coast to coast to report local stories, collaborate with local newsrooms and co-publish articles so that this vital work is shared as widely as possible.
Two of us launched ICN in 2007. Six years later we earned a Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting, and now we run the oldest and largest dedicated climate newsroom in the nation. We tell the story in all its complexity. We hold polluters accountable. We expose environmental injustice. We debunk misinformation. We scrutinize solutions and inspire action.
Donations from readers like you fund every aspect of what we do. If you don’t already, will you support our ongoing work, our reporting on the biggest crisis facing our planet, and help us reach even more readers in more places?
Please take a moment to make a tax-deductible donation. Every one of them makes a difference.
Thank you,
David Sassoon
Founder and Publisher
Vernon Loeb
Executive Editor
Share this article
veryGood! (4521)
Related
- North Carolina announces 5
- Big Oil’s Top Executives Strike a Common Theme in Testimony on Capitol Hill: It Never Happened
- Bethenny Frankel's Daughter Bryn, 13, Is All Grown Up in Rare TV Appearance
- Inside Clean Energy: Denmark Makes the Most of its Brief Moment at the Climate Summit
- Sabrina Carpenter reveals her own hits made it on her personal Spotify Wrapped list
- If You Want a Low-Maintenance Skincare Routine, Try This 1-Minute Facial While It’s 59% Off
- As Illinois Strains to Pass a Major Clean Energy Law, a Big Coal Plant Stands in the Way
- Thousands of Amazon Shoppers Say This 50% Off Folding Makeup Mirror Is a Must-Have
- Beyoncé's BeyGood charity donates $100K to Houston law center amid Jay
- Inside Clean Energy: Ohio’s EV Truck Savior Is Running Out of Juice
Ranking
- Bill Belichick's salary at North Carolina: School releases football coach's contract details
- Shipping Looks to Hydrogen as It Seeks to Ditch Bunker Fuel
- Inside Clean Energy: Denmark Makes the Most of its Brief Moment at the Climate Summit
- One winning ticket sold for $1.08 billion Powerball jackpot - in Los Angeles
- Jim Leach, former US representative from Iowa, dies at 82
- The president of the United Auto Workers union has been ousted in an election
- Shining a Light on Suicide Risk for Wildland Firefighters
- Inside a bank run
Recommendation
-
East Coast storm makes a mess at ski resorts as strong winds cause power outages
-
Shining a Light on Suicide Risk for Wildland Firefighters
-
Shining a Light on Suicide Risk for Wildland Firefighters
-
Shifts in El Niño May Be Driving Climates Extremes in Both Hemispheres
-
Singaporean killed in Johor expressway crash had just paid mum a surprise visit in Genting
-
New Report Expects Global Emissions of Carbon Dioxide to Rebound to Pre-Pandemic High This Year
-
Titanic Actor Lew Palter Dead at 94
-
The U.S. condemns Russia's arrest of a Wall Street Journal reporter