An environmental group launched a legal battle Wednesday against the Interior Department, saying the agency broke its promise to limit environmental damage from petroleum development on Wyoming’s Pinedale Anticline, one of the country’s top natural-gas reserves.
The Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, a nonprofit coalition of hunting, fishing and other organizations, filed suit against the Interior Department and the Bureau of Land Management in U.S. District Court. The suit alleges BLM “failed unequivocally” to comply with its plans to monitor and mitigate the effects of drilling on wildlife across the Anticline and violated the National Environmental Policy Act and Federal Land Policy and Management Act.
The Pinedale Anticline is estimated to hold 21 trillion cubic feet of gas — enough to heat 12.5 million homes for as many as 20 years.
The Bush administration has highlighted it as a model for oil and gas exploration. But massive development of oil and gas fields has pushed up ozone levels and broken up wildlife habitat, according to a recent Environmental Protection Agency study and the group that filed suit.
The project plan formulated eight years ago called for the development of about 700 well pads over a 10- to 15-year period. It included procedures to monitor and evaluate the impact. The suit alleges that a working group set up for that task held its first meeting in 2004 and has not met consistently thereafter.
Teresa Howes, a spokeswoman for the BLM, said she had not seen the suit and could not directly address it but said the agency has been following procedures in the project plan.
The suit comes at a time when three companies — Shell Exploration and Production, Ultra Resources and Questar Exploration and Production — have asked to drill year-round. Current rules require development be shut down during wildlife breeding and migration seasons. All three companies have offices in Denver.
