The Trump administration will forgo an environmental review for thousands of federal oil and natural gas leases, including some in Wyoming, at the center of a 10-year legal and political battle.
The Interior Department announced Thursday it will rescind a last-minute Biden-era notification to conduct a full environmental impact statement review for 3,244 oil and gas leases issued between 2015 and 2020 in seven western states. There are other review processes, according to the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, to legally satisfy the cumulative court orders and settlement agreements stemming from the years-long battle.
BLM published its official notice to ditch the review in the Federal Register on Friday. The BLM “is evaluating options for compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act for these oil and gas leasing decisions,” according to the agency.
One group involved in the decade-long legal battle questioned that approach.
“We don’t know what that’s going to look like or, honestly, if it will even happen,” WildEarth Guardians Climate and Health Advocate Melissa Troutman told WyoFile on Thursday.
WildEarth Guardians initially sued the BLM in 2016, pressuring the agency to more fully analyze the cumulative climate and health implications of its oil and gas leasing actions. The conservation group is particularly “dialed into” BLM’s environmental role in the prolific Permian Basin oil and gas field that spans New Mexico and western Texas — one of the most intense drilling plays in the nation, Troutman said. But WildEarth Guardians and other groups have condemned the federal agency for what they see as its capitulation — via piecemeal environmental reviews — to the industry’s larger pollution from activities on federal lands throughout the West.
As multiple lawsuits and differing court rulings ensued over the years, the BLM has been whipsawed by changing presidential administrations with vastly differing directives over the issues.
“Meanwhile, more climate pollution, more families in these frontline communities [face health implications], more spills contaminating land and water are occurring every day,” Troutman said. “This is not the time to delay a further assessment of what’s already happening.”
She added: “This whole plan to ‘unleash American energy’ is really just unleashing even more oil and gas pollution on top of it.”
Industry officials contend the leases in question, and their environmental impacts, have been analyzed ad nauseam.
“The court[s], in these cases, are requiring some level of review. The BLM must follow the law,” Petroleum Association of Wyoming President Pete Obermueller told WyoFile via email.
But he stressed, the Biden administration’s approach wasn’t the best route.
“A multi-state [environmental impact statement] is not the only way to undertake environmental analysis,” he wrote
The Interior Department, which oversees the BLM, noted the action to rescind the Biden administration’s promise for a full environmental review — which would have included cumulative climate and health impacts — is in line with President Donald Trump’s January executive order, “Unleashing American Energy.” The order directs the Interior and other federal agencies to, among other things, reduce “regulatory barriers for oil and gas companies and [expedite] domestic energy development.”
Meantime, the BLM is moving forward with quarterly oil and gas lease sales. The agency this month initiated a 30-day “public scoping period” seeking input on 99 oil and gas lease parcels in Wyoming that it may include in a December lease sale. The comment period ends May 9.
For information, maps and instructions for how to comment, go to this BLM webpage.
Kinda funny that the photograph at the beginning of this article shows a herd of around twenty antelope co-existing with an oil& gas facility. Then all the commenters complain about how we’re all going to die from pollution from oil& gas drilling. Meanwhile, wind turbines continue to kill all sorts of birds, and solar panel fields take multiple acres of wildlife habitat away and block big game migration routes. Go figure.
Which is worse?
Have you ever walked under a turbine? I have, many, don’t believe trump, there were only a couple dead birds that I saw. If you don’t think there is a direct correlation between the antelope herd being 20% of what it was and the increase in fossil fuel extraction then I guess you think wind mills cause cancer.
Why not do all we can to clear our air, no need to remove guard rails on the oil industry which has proven it doesn’t care about the environment.
Hydrocarbons (e.g., coal, oil, gas) are used for more than just fuel sources. No hydrocarbons, no modern technological society. Yes Greta, hydrocarbons are needed to manufacture, and operate wind turbines, PV panels, etc.
Drill baby Drill! Dig baby Dig!! Generation after Generation has been predicting the end of the World. We still here. Even Greta predictions of dire straights have missed the mark by a lot. Quit being afraid.
Enjoy your dream world…even as it disappears around you.
On the bright side, trumple’s stupidity and basic insecurity helps to accelerate the coming extinction of the stupidest species ever to evolve, Homo sapiens…
Those minerals are taxpayers. Minerals need to be mined or drilled for. But Congress needs to control spending.
Not certain what the 2025 per barrel price point is to make domestic oil companies pause new drilling efforts, but we have to be close. Crude is sitting at $60 a barrel currently. OPEC+ is ramping up production and helping countries not wanting to play tariff paddycake with the orange toddler. This administration’s gross incompetence may actually be good for the WY environment, by making it non-profitable to drill new wells. I would not expect gas prices to come down much in relation to the cheaper per barrel prices – price gouging is still a thing, and more popular than ever recently. Of course, if you don’t have a job because the rigs have shut down, you don’t need to drive to work.
I was the Utah BLM Fluid Minerals Leasing Coordinator during this time period (you can google my name to verify). I can assure you the BLM tried everything, analysis on top of analysis in order to satisfy the NGO’s and courts while avoiding preparing an EIS . Nothing worked and nothing will work. If I hadn’t already retired, I would have turned in my papers today to avoid the s**tshow that’s going to go on for the next four years.
That headline again:
“Trump Takes a Dump…All Over the Environment”
Like wind turbines and big solar farms are beautiful site. Talk about harming the environment.