Challenge to New Mexico Drilling Permits Tossed by Federal Judge

Conservation groups failed to show how drilling permits in New Mexico’s Permian Basin and Wyoming’s Powder River Basin will injure them, a federal judge said, granting Chevron USA Inc.'s request to dismiss the challenge.

The Center for Biological Diversity and other groups sued the US Bureau of Land Management in June 2022, alleging that it approved thousands of oil and gas drilling permits in New Mexico and Wyoming without fully analyzing their greenhouse gas emissions and their effect on protected species.

Chevron and other energy companies and associations intervened, arguing that the groups lacked standing to challenge the permit application ...