After filing suit when the Bureau of Land Management refused to issue oil and gas drilling permits in Utah to Texas-based EnerVest, the BLM has come through but only after a federal judge ordered it to do so.
The BLM issued the permits this week. Last month, EnerVest, based in Houston, went to court after indicating it did everything the BLM asked it to do in order to begin drilling 10 wells in eastern Utah. Approval had been rescinded but no one was telling the company why.
At the time of the suit, EnerVest pointed fingers at Washington, D.C. saying the delay cost the company $47 million. The company has operations in Oklahoma, Arkansas, Colorado, Kansas, Texas and other states.
“This clearly is one last tactic from an outgoing administration that has spent eight years trying to put us out of business by overregulating and overreaching its authority,” said John Walker, EnerVest CEO. “I feel that as citizens it is our responsibility to speak out against our government when it illegally abuses its power to further advance its job-killing agenda.”
After a series of back-and-forth conversations with BLM employees in the Price and Vernal field offices, EnerVest said it was informed by local staffers that the permits were not going to be approved in light of new national guidelines issued by the Council of Environmental Quality regarding the impacts from greenhouse gas emissions.