Name: Trump administration must consider climate change before leasing land in Wyoming, court orders
Brand: trib.com
SKU: trib-com-43
Availability: OnlineOnly

critic

Trump administration must consider climate change before leasing land in Wyoming, court orders

preview

Get the latest local business news delivered FREE to your inbox weekly.Please subscribe to keep reading. You can cancel at any time.Loading&amp;hellp;{{title}}{{description}}{{banner}}(renews at {{format_dollars}}{{start_price}}{{format_cents}}/month + tax){{tagline}}{{special_title}}{{html}}You are the owner of this article.You have permission to edit this article.© 2022 Lee EnterprisesShare ThisTrump administration must consider climate change before leasing land in Wyoming, court ordersShare thisIn a move environmental groups considered a win, a federal court declared the Bureau of Land Management did not adequately consider how leasing over one million acres of public land to oil and gas companies throughout the West could affect the climate.A vast majority of the challenged leases ., federal regulators fell short of complying with the National Environmental Policy Act when it leased public land in Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, New Mexico and Montana between September 2016 and March 2019.The court decision remanded, or sent back, the leases to the BLM for additional review. The court ruled the BLM neglected to comprehensively forecast the amount of greenhouse gas emissions associated with leasing the 1.7 million acres for drilling. However, the court chose not to vacate, or invalidate, the leases, as the environmental groups originally demanded.WildEarth Guardians joined Physicians for Social Responsibility and the Western Environmental Law Center in January to file the lawsuit.“This is a powerful victory for the climate,” said Jeremy Nichols, director of the climate and energy program for WildEarth Guardians. “Finally, the Trump administration is admitting it can’t legally sell public lands to the oil and gas industry and ignore the consequences for our climate and future.”In a Sept. 11 motion, attorneys for the BLM actually agreed to voluntarily address the deficiencies of its review, but asked the court to not overturn the lease decisions.A BLM spokesman said the agency was “pleased with the Court’s granting our request to conduct further NEPA analysis of our lawful leasing decisions.”The court’s decision builds on the precedent set by another lawsuit filed in 2016 by the same environmental groups.That suit targeted several other leases associated with about 450,000 acres in Wyoming, Colorado and Utah. In that case, ordered the BLM to reassess the greenhouse gas emissions potentially associated with leasing 303,000 acres of public land in Wyoming for oil and gas development.Tripp Parks, vice president of government affairs at the Western Energy Alliance, explained the significance of the latest court decision in a written comment.“With this order, BLM now has the opportunity to update older leasing decisions, several of which took place under the Obama Administration, so they match what the agency has been doing for the past two years,” Parks stated. “Judge Contreras rightly denied the environmental plaintiffs’ request to vacate the leases in the interim, as he has repeatedly declined to do in the past. Going forward, we are confident that BLM is doing the proper analysis of the environmental impacts of lease sales and they will withstand plaintiffs’ unending requests to end BLM leasing.”Western Energy Alliance represents hundreds of oil and gas companies across the West.In Wyoming, over half of oil is drilled on public land managed by the federal government, along with 92% of natural gas. Operators in Wyoming produce more oil and gas on federal land than almost any other state in the country, contributing 38% of the natural gas produced on federal land nationwide, along with 16% of oil production.Steve Degenfelder, land manager at Kirkwood Oil and Gas, said the independent firm was hit by the court decisions. The Casper-based company will hold out to see if the federal regulators’ supplemental environmental reviews will impose additional terms on the leases.“We will have to wait,” he told the Star-Tribune.Follow the latest on Wyoming’s energy industry and the environment atGet the latest local business news delivered FREE to your inbox weekly.All nominated parcels included in the sale fall within habitat home to sage grouse, a point of contention for several conservation groups.{{title}}{{summary}}You don't have any notifications.Get up-to-the-minute news sent straight to your device.Topics

Get the latest local business news delivered FREE to your inbox weekly.Please subscribe to keep reading. You can cancel at any time.Loading&amp;hellp;{{title}}{{description}}{{banner}}(renews at {{format_dollars}}{{start_price}}{{format_cents}}/month + tax){{tagline}}{{special_title}}{{html}}You are the owner of this article.You have permission to edit this article.© 2022 Lee EnterprisesShare ThisTrump administration must consider climate change before leasing land in Wyoming, court ordersShare thisIn a move environmental groups considered a win, a federal court declared the Bureau of Land...

public

Camille Erickson 307-266-0592

trib.com

Credible

Speculation

Anecdotal Evidence

Generalization

Stacking the Deck

Appeal to Authority

Straw Man

Slippery Slope

Emotional Appeal

Red Herring

False Dilemma

Illogical

Moral Equivalency

Ad Hominem

Correlation w/o Causation

Semantics

Begging the Question

Faulty Analogy

Non Sequitur

Bandwagon

Dogmatism

Failing Occam's Razor

Biased

Pure Opinion

Hit Piece

Racial Bias

National Bias

Religious Bias

Financial Incentive

Political Agenda

Gender Bias

Misused Image/Video

Study Misinterpreted

Mistake

Misused Term

Science Misrepresented

Factual Error

Satire

Surface Level

Lack of Reliable Sources

Sensational

Not Credible

Investigative

Balanced

Well Sourced

Great Context

sports

entertainment

U.S.

international

business

technology

science

culture

politics

media

health

Trump administration must consider climate change before leasing land in Wyoming, court orders

No article scores yet.

CRITIC REVIEWS

PUBLIC REVIEWS