WYOMING —On Friday, March 22, U.S. District Court Judge Christopher R. Cooper sided with conservation groups regarding two separate lawsuits challenging the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) sales of 120,000 acres in Wyoming that was leased for oil and gas development.
According to the ruling, the BLM didn’t provide adequate environmental analysis, or fully explain the impacts future drilling could have on the climate, big game migration and sage grouse. The BLM also used outdated data on drilling when the leases were purchased back in 2022.
The Judge’s Memorandum and Order states that over two days in June 2022, the BLM finalized six lease sales of federal land for oil and gas development, with the largest sale occurring in Wyoming, and this violated the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).
“The Court agrees with the Conservation Groups that BLM erred at times when assessing the Wyoming sale’s impact on groundwater and wildlife and in explaining how its analysis of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions influenced its leasing decisions,” Cooper wrote in the Memorandum.
Judge Cooper will decide whether the leases are to be paused, canceled or maintained while the BLM is drafting its updated environmental analysis.
