New Interior Oil Drilling Permits Temporarily Blocked in Wyoming

New oil drilling permits on nearly 120,000 acres of public land in Wyoming were temporarily paused by a federal court Tuesday.

Judge Christopher R. Cooper of the US District Court for the District of Columbia blocked the Bureau of Land Management from approving new drilling permits on the land until the agency conducts a supplemental review of the related environmental impact. He gave the agency 180 days to complete the review.

Cooper previously ruled in the case that the Interior Department’s BLM failed to fully comply with the National Environmental Policy Act when assessing the environmental impact of drilling on the land “and explaining its decision to authorize a lease sale of this magnitude in light of its own estimates of the steep social costs from the projected greenhouse gas emissions.”

BLM’s Wyoming State Office finalized a lease sale of the land in June 2022. Environmental groups were ready—they sued the same day, challenging the BLM’s environmental review and the size of the sale.

Cooper in March agreed with environmental groups that oil development on the land may harm local wildlife and groundwater supplies. But he didn’t decide on a remedy at the time, instead ordering another round of briefings before issuing a ruling.

The groups had asked for the court to vacate the approved leases, while the bureau asked to remand it back to the agency for further consideration without vacatur.

To “avoid any environmental harm while the Bureau revises its NEPA analysis, the Court will require that the Bureau pause approval of any new drilling permits or surface disturbing activities on the leased parcels during remand,” Cooper wrote.

Earthjustice represented the environmental groups.

In a separate case earlier this year, Cooper upheld the Biden administration’s first oil and gas leases on public lands. Those sales, on 173 parcels across seven states, were also challenged by environmental groups on the grounds that the BLM didn’t fully account for the sales’ greenhouse gas emissions. But Cooper sided with the Interior Department, finding no legal shortcomings in the agency’s environmental analysis.

The case is Wilderness Society v. Haaland, D.D.C., No. 1:22-cv-01871, Opinion 7/16/24.