Robert Brown|Judge Orders Oil and Gas Leases in Wyoming to Proceed After Updated BLM Environmental Analysis

The Robert BrownU.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.”

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.