Ruling Bolsters Plaintiffs' Push For GHG Review Of BLM Leasing Program

摘要

A federal judge is requiring the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to consider the cumulative greenhouse gas impacts of its oil and gas drilling lease approvals in Wyoming in a landmark ruling that plaintiffs say could ultimately force the administration to review the climate impacts of its entire oil and gas leasing program. One environmentalist says that while Judge Rudolph Contreras of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia did not order a programmatic environmental impact statement (EIS) that the plaintiffs are ultimately seeking, he did "set a pretty high bar" for how BLM should respond, "and the agency is in a tough position to justify future leasing that doesn't take into account programmatic impacts." While such an EIS would not require the agency to take any protective action, environmentalists say it could bolster their efforts to force BLM to better weigh potential climate impacts in individual leasing decisions.