A 2016 Tulsa court ruling that voided the U.S. government’s approval of oil and gas leases and drilling permits on Osage tribal land in Osage County has been reversed by the Denver Federal Appeals Court.
The 10th U.S. Circuit Court ordered the ruling made in March 2016 to be vacated and dismissed in the original lawsuit filed against the Interior Department, the Bureau of Indian Affairs and Chaparral Energy of Oklahoma City.
The original lawsuit was filed by David P. Hayes, a Trustee for the Paul B. Hayes Family Trust who said the federal government violated the National Environmental Policy Act in approving leases and drilling permits in 2012 and 2013. The BIA approved the leases using the NEPA standards and okayed the drilling permits without doing a new NEPA analysis.
Hayes said the approvals should be void because the BIA failed to comply with NEPA. His suit also brought a trespass claim against Chaparral Energy because of what it called invalid leases and permits.
The tribe joined the legal fight in 2014 arguing the suit should be dismissed and the approvals should be allowed to stand. But the BIA eventually said it would not rely on the old NEPA analyses and published a new assessment. At that point, it retroactively approved the same leases and permits.
A Tulsa judge ruled against the BIA saying the new approval of the leases and permits violated NEPA. The Osage Mineral Council appealed.
The Appeals Court ruled the new analysis “mooted this appeal by eliminating the issues upon which this case is based.”
In other words, since the BIA took corrective action in creating new NEPA standards, there was no longer an issue to be appealed. Since the original drilling permits expired, the challenge against Chaparral was moot as well.
However, the case is not totally dead. The original plaintiff, David Hayes challenged the BIA’s decision to retroactively approve the leases and his challenge is pending before the U.S. District court in Tulsa. The lawsuit, (CV-00495) filed in September of 2016 remains alive with the most recent filing made June 30, 2017. Now Ryan Zinke, new Interior Secretary is named as one of the defendants along with Warrior Exploration and Production LLC and Performance Group LLC.