A 2008 lawsuit filed to protect Utah petroglyphs from oil and gas drilling has just been resolved — and the settlement has big implications for the West’s public lands. Announced Wednesday, the decision means that the Bureau of Land Management can no longer fast-track energy development in cases where there are “extraordinary circumstances” — environmental, cultural or historic resources, say, or the potential for significant cumulative harm to air quality — unless it fully evaluates possible impacts on those resources.
At issue are “categorical exclusions” — or CXs — which are provisions of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 designed to streamline permitting for relatively harmless, small-scale oil and gas projects, like a single new gas well on an existing well-pad, under the umbrella of an existing environmental study.
Under federal regulations that predate the Energy Act, categorical exclusions can be used to avoid extra environmental review unless “extraordinary circumstances” exist. But because the oil and gas CXs were spelled out in a law, Bush’s BLM told its staff they need not worry about those regulations when permitting projects. Last fall an internal government investigation found that the BLM was using CXs a lot, accounting for nearly 30 percent of drilling permits issued from 2006 to 2008. (See our story “Is the BLM practicing unsafe CX?” for an analysis.)
A Government Accountability Office report last year criticized the BLM’s “inappropriate” use of categorical exclusions, saying the agency’s actions led to lawsuits, end runs around environmental laws and dirty air in Vernal. (from the Salt Lake Tribune)
Meanwhile, in Wyoming, Shoshone National Forest officials just announced that they were abandoning their plan to use a fast-track CX for what environmentalists say would be the only functioning oil well inside the nation’s first national forest, according to a Casper Star-Tribune report. Instead, they’ll do a more thorough analysis of impacts:
(Wind River District Ranger Rick Metzger) said Forest Service officials decided to prepare the environmental assessment to “ensure” the issues and concerns brought forward during the scoping period and at an early February meeting were fully analyzed.
Wyoming Outdoor Council spokeswoman Lisa McGee called the decision “a step in the right direction.” She said the scenic and recreational values of the area warrant the higher level of environmental review.
It appears that the Obama administration is indeed taking a more careful approach to developing oil and gas in the West. And not surprisingly, that’s making some Republican politicians unhappy. The Deseret News quotes Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah:
“I find it outrageous and cynical that on the same day the president is attempting to persuade Americans that he is supportive of new oil and gas development, a secret deal is announced,” that the congressman asserts guts one of the “streamlining” provisions of the Energy Policy Act.
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