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Richard Tucker works on True Drilling Rig No. 38 on March 18 outside of Glenrock. Wyoming producers are trying to ramp up production as oil prices rise, but they are running into obstacles.
The Biden administration will redo the environmental review of more than 2,000 Wyoming oil and gas leases sold between 2015 and 2020 — including virtually all of the leases issued under former president Donald Trump — in accordance with a trio of settlement agreements approved Wednesday by a federal judge.
None of the leases have been vacated, but their future is uncertain. The Department of the Interior now has to reevaluate and retroactively justify more than two dozen lease sales. If it decides it can’t, or its reasoning doesn’t satisfy the court, the sales could be reversed and any existing permits revoked.
Jeremy Nichols, climate and energy program director for plaintiff WildEarth Guardians, said the decision was unprecedented.
“This is getting to the heart of the federal oil and gas program,” Nichols said. “The question here will be not whether it’s OK to lease in the Red Desert or the Powder River Basin, but whether the federal oil and gas program even makes sense in the midst of the climate crisis.”
Industry responded by asking Congress to play a greater role in decisions affecting the energy sector.
“Backroom court settlements like this, negotiated by the Biden Administration and its anti-domestic oil and gas allies, will continue to decide the fate of Wyoming’s primary economic driver until Congress reasserts its control and establishes a coherent national energy policy,” Ryan McConnaughey, communications director for the Petroleum Association of Wyoming, said in an emailed statement.
WildEarth Guardians and several other environmental groups filed three lawsuits against the interior department, in 2016, 2020 and 2021, challenging the climate analysis for a total of nearly 4 million acres leased for oil and gas development across Wyoming, Colorado, Montana, New Mexico and Utah.
Close to 2.5 million of those leased acres — more than 3,500 square miles — are located in Wyoming.
U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras ordered the department in 2019 to reassess some of the Wyoming leases. A year and a half later, he declared the agency’s second attempt inadequate.
Around the same time, the interior department acknowledged “the same sort of deficiencies” in subsequent sales’ climate analyses, said Kyle Tisdel, senior attorney and climate and energy program director for the Western Environmental Law Center, another plaintiff.
If the agency wants future lease sales to hold up in court, Tisdel said, its climate analysis will have to meet the higher bar the cases have established. Federal attorneys have cited Contreras’ decisions and other, similar rulings to explain why it took the Biden administration more than a year to complete the review process for its first round of onshore lease sales.
Wyoming’s first Biden-era sale is scheduled to offer 129 parcels, spanning about 130,000 acres, later this month.
The interior department agreed in March, shortly before announcing the upcoming sale, to reassess the climate impacts of most of the disputed Obama-era and Trump-era sales, including all 16 held in Wyoming. Contreras upheld the deal on Wednesday. Some of the affected leases have already been invalidated by other federal courts over environmental concerns: In March, a Montana judge threw out 193 Wyoming leases sold in December 2017 and March 2018 after finding that the interior department didn’t adequately consider threats to sage grouse.
In the cases before Contreras, the environmental groups argued, successfully, that the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) requires the department to assess the “direct, indirect and cumulative effects” that new leasing would have on the environment and the climate. But the oil and gas industry thinks that’s an inaccurate interpretation of the landmark 1970 legislation, which doesn’t mention climate change.
Many in the industry feel unfairly targeted by the pause on new leasing and other executive actions aimed at lowering emissions.
“Some groups will not be satisfied until NEPA is twisted into a law unrecognizable to its drafters, used to halt all mineral resource production in Wyoming,” McConnaughey said.
Meanwhile, now that the settlement is finalized — surviving an attempt by the American Petroleum Institute to have the case dismissed over questions about jurisdiction — WildEarth Guardians sees this as the Biden administration’s chance to follow through on its climate commitments.
“I think, to the extent that they decide to uphold prior leasing decisions, they’re going to have their work cut out for them,” Nichols said. “They have a high bar, and we’re going to hold them to that high bar.”
Casey Jaure runs the the drill at the True Drilling Rig No. 38 outside of Glenrock on March 18.
Victor Garcia and Richard Tucker work on True Drilling Rig No. 38 outside of Glenrock on Friday, March 18.
Casey Jaure runs the the drill at the True Drilling Rig No. 38 outside of Glenrock on Friday, March 18.
Victor Garcia and Richard Tucker work on True Drilling Rig No. 38 outside of Glenrock on Friday, March 18.
True Drilling Rig No. 38 operates March 18 outside of Glenrock. A federal appeals court in New Orleans heard arguments Tuesday about whether President Joe Biden legally suspended new oil and gas lease sales because of climate change worries.
True Drilling Rig No. 38 seen outside of Glenrock on Friday, March 18.
True Drilling Rig No. 38 seen outside of Glenrock on Friday, March 18.
The power breaker room at the True Drilling Rig No. 38 seen outside of Glenrock on Friday, March 18.
True Drilling Rig No. 38 seen outside of Glenrock on Friday, March 18.
True Drilling Rig No. 38 seen outside of Glenrock on Friday, March 18.
Seth Zupanik helps Dave True down during a tour at the True Drilling Rig No. 38 outside of Glenrock on Friday, March 18.
Seth Zupanik talks during a tour of True Drilling Rig No. 38 outside of Glenrock on Friday, March 18.
Joshua Shells, the toolpusher, listens to a tour of True Drilling Rig No. 38 outside of Glenrock on Friday, March 18.
Seth Zupanik and Bill DeGraeve give a tour of True Drilling Rig No. 38 outside of Glenrock on Friday, March 18.
Seth Zupanik and Dave True give a tour of True Drilling Rig No. 38 outside of Glenrock on Friday, March 18.
Seth Zupanik gives a tour of True Drilling Rig No. 38 outside of Glenrock on Friday, March 18.
Seth Zupanik gives a tour of True Drilling Rig No. 38 outside of Glenrock on Friday, March 18.
Victor Garcia and Richard Tucker work on True Drilling Rig No. 38 outside of Glenrock on Friday, March 18.
True Drilling Rig No. 38 seen outside of Glenrock on Friday, March 18.
Victor Garcia and Richard Tucker work on True Drilling Rig No. 38 outside of Glenrock on Friday, March 18.
True Drilling Rig No. 38 seen outside of Glenrock on Friday, March 18.
Richard Tucker marks pipes on True Drilling Rig No. 38 outside of Glenrock on Friday, March 18.
True Drilling Rig No. 38 seen outside of Glenrock on Friday, March 18.
True Drilling Rig No. 38 seen outside of Glenrock on Friday, March 18.
True Drilling Rig No. 38 outside of Glenrock seen on Friday, March 18.
Seth Zupanik talks about the drilling depth of True Drilling Rig No. 38 outside of Glenrock seen on Friday, March 18.
Reporter Nicole Pollack walks tours the True Drilling Rig No. 38 outside of Glenrock on Friday, March 18.
Bill DeBraeve looks at pipes that will be used for True Drilling Rig No. 38 on March 18 outside of Glenrock. Several factors have combined to cause the dramatic rise in the price of oil including Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Pipes that will be used for the True Drilling Rig No. 38 outside of Glenrock seen on Friday, March 18.
Joshua Shells, the tool pusher, and Seth Zupanik, his manager, talk at True Drilling Rig No. 38 outside of Glenrock on March 18. Federal oil and gas leasing will resume in Wyoming and other states. However, the Biden administration scaled back the size of the sale and is increasing the royalty rate.
Seth Zupanik and Bill DeGraeve give a tour at True Drilling Rig No. 38 on March 18 outside of Glenrock. Some property owners in Wyoming don’t think oil and gas exploration on federal lands is working as it should.
Seth Zupanik give a tour of the safety mechanism at the True Drilling Rig No. 38 outside of Glenrock on Friday, March 18.
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Energy and natural resources reporter
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Wyoming’s first federal oil and gas lease sale in more than a year is set to begin today. Few are satisfied with the offerings. And nobody is sure how it will play out.
Environmental groups sued Wednesday over the environmental analysis underpinning 123 leases up for sale this week in Wyoming.
In a setback for climate advocates, the Supreme Court ruled Thursday that the EPA overstepped its Congressional authority when it set Obama-era limits on greenhouse emissions.
Richard Tucker works on True Drilling Rig No. 38 on March 18 outside of Glenrock. Wyoming producers are trying to ramp up production as oil prices rise, but they are running into obstacles.
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