Federal Oil and Gas Leases: Drilling Permits Environmental Law: National Environmental Policy Act; FLIPMA

摘要

BLM issues a Record of Decision (ROD) for the Atlantic Rim Natural Gas Field Development Project covering more than 270,000 acres of publically and privately owned land in south-central Wyoming. The ROD is a culmination of nearly seven years of study that includes the preparation of a draft and final environmental impact statement. The court previously rejects a claim by a number of the plaintiffs to issue a preliminary injunction after the applications for permits to drill are filed. Natural Resource Defense Council v. Kempthorne, 525 F.Supp.2d 115 (D.D.C. 2007). Shortly after the ROD is issued, BLM issues drilling permits to several federal oil and gas lessees to implement the project Plaintiffs seek to invalidate the permits based on alleged violations of both NEPA and FLPMA. Plaintiffs argue that BLM failed to take the requisite hard look at the environmental impacts of the proposed project because it minimized the project's impact on air quality, it ignored the possibility of methane leaks and it minimized the impact on the greater sage grouse. While the court finds that BLM used a methodology for predicting or modeling the project's effects on ozone levels, BLM did not violate NEPA's standards for scientific integrity.