WYOMING — On May 17, a lawsuit filed by conservation groups against a fracking project planned in southwestern Wyoming will be heard by a federal appeals court panel amid wildlife and human health risks.
In February 2020, the Upper Green River Alliance, Western Watersheds Project and Center for Biological Diversity filed a petition against the 3,500 gas well Normally Pressure Lance project. They then appealed the lower court’s ruling to uphold the project.
According to the petition, the fracking project would harm greater sage grouse habitat, which the Wyoming Game and Fish Department emphasizes is key to the sustainability of sage grouse populations, and disrupt the 170-mile-long migratory Path of the Pronghorn.
The Path is also known by the state as the Sublette Pronghorn Migration. It connects Grand Teton National Park to the Upper Green River Basin as a critical migration corridor for the species.
“Development within any segment of the Path of the Pronghorn could spell the end of this extraordinary 5,800 year-old phenomenon and Grand Teton National Park’s pronghorn herd,” the petition states.
The fracking project is also estimated to produce up to 440 million tons of carbon dioxide pollution.
A recently published peer-reviewed study from Boston University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, PSE Healthy Energy and the Environmental Defense Fund has found that oil and gas fields are directly impacting Wyoming’s air quality and the health of its residents.
According to the study, Wyoming has one of the highest oil and gas related emissions impacts per million people.
