Four years after the Bureau of Land Management approved a fracking plan for more than 935,000 acres of land with a potential development of nearly 4,000 new oil and gas wells in western Colorado, a federal judge has approved an order rescinding the plan.
The ruling last week came in a lawsuit brought by environmental groups who claimed the government failed to analyze the potential harm to the climate from the drilling projects.
The BLM now has to redo the plan, much to the support of the Center for Biological Diversity, one of the groups that filed the lawsuit.
“For too long BLM officials have willfully ignored the fact that federal fossil fuel programs conflict with U.S. climate goals. This order sends them back to the drawing board,” said Taylor McKinnon, a senior campaigner at the Center. “New oil and gas leases don’t fit with the Biden administration’s goals to transition to clean energy and conserve 30% of public lands and waters by 2030. Our rapidly warming planet just can’t afford it.”
In 2016 the BLM approved the 20-year Grand Junction resource-management plan, allocating 935,600 acres for oil and gas leasing and predicting development of nearly 4,000 new oil and gas wells. The BLM failed to analyze climate impacts from lease sales in the plan area, and conservation groups sued the agency in 2019.
“BLM’s plan prioritized oil and gas development over all other public land values and uses, disregarding the agency’s multiple use mandate and the public support for protecting wildlife, wilderness and recreation,” said Peter Hart, a staff attorney at Wilderness Workshop. “With this remand, the agency has another chance to ensure the spectacular BLM wildlands surrounding Grand Junction aren’t simply handed over to the fossil fuel industry.”
Conservation groups prevailed in a similar lawsuit challenging the BLM’s failure to analyze climate impacts for its 2015 Colorado River Valley resource-management plan for public lands adjacent to the Grand Junction plan. The BLM also failed to consider alternatives that would generate less greenhouse gas pollution.
“The federal government must finally begin to align the management of public lands oil and gas development with the science and timeline of the climate crisis,” said Kyle Tisdel, climate and energy program director at Western Environmental Law Center. “The remand of this plan creates an opportunity to protect and support thriving landscapes and resilient communities, while also advancing U.S. climate goals and commitments.”
“We are hopeful that the Bureau of Land Management will be reviewing this plan in addition to many other plans that would cause climate change and community impacts,” said Phil Hanceford, conservation director for The Wilderness Society. “We look forward to engaging in this and other short-sighted plans in the future that prioritize science and communities that should drive policies on our public lands.”
Friday’s order comes as the Biden administration is reviewing federal oil and gas programs because of their climate pollution and other potential harms.
Source: Center for Biological Diversity