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TRCP Sues Interior Department over Wyoming Drilling Plans
8/21/07
WASHINGTON - The Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership (TRCP) filed suit Friday in U.S. District Court against the Department of the Interior for its mishandling of a process that cleared the way for rapidly accelerated energy development on public land in south-central Wyoming.
Specifically, the TRCP is protesting the Bureau of Land Management's authorization of 2,000 new oil and gas wells, along with 1,000 miles of road and 1,000 miles of pipeline, in an area known as the Atlantic Rim.
Under the recent BLM action, energy development would come despite the federal government's admission that "the natural setting would be converted to an industrialized setting by development" for multiple generations and that "implementation of the [project] would have adverse impact to suitable habitat for many wildlife species," including iconic big game species such as mule deer, elk and pronghorn antelope. (See Final Environmental Impact Statement, Atlantic Rim Project Area.)
The TRCP contends that the BLM is addressing neither the needs of sportsmen nor the fish and wildlife that populate the Atlantic Rim. The area is primarily used for hunting, wildlife viewing, grazing and pleasure driving - all activities that will be diminished by development.
The TRCP suit states that BLM has failed to fulfill its obligation under the National Environmental Policy Act and has committed numerous violations. Among those violations are BLM failures to evaluate a reasonable range of alternatives to intensive development, including a more measured approach that would allow development to proceed while maintaining fish and wildlife populations.
The approved plan allows for maximized development with no assurances for fish and wildlife for the future. The BLM also failed to define how losses in fish, wildlife and outdoor recreation will be mitigated if development proceeds as planned.
The TRCP further asserts that the BLM failed to properly analyze the cumulative impacts of both the project and nearby expanded development. It also points out that the agency ignored new scientific data and recent experiences in other well fields concerning the effects of energy development on populations of mule deer and sage grouse.
Additionally, the suit contends that BLM violated the Federal Land Policy and Management Act, which requires the agency to balance the concerns of the many users of America's public lands and to assure long-term sustainability of non-mineral resources.
"In these actions, we see a federal agency acting on behalf of only one user group, the energy industry," said TRCP Energy Initiative Manager Steve Belinda. "BLM is not fulfilling the multiple-use mandate it is legally obligated to follow. The time has come to hold the agency accountable."
"This suit is a major step for our organization and not one that we took lightly," said TRCP President and CEO George Cooper. "We reached this point only after years of exhausting every other avenue, including direct contacts in Washington and in the field and formal administrative appeals. But we at the TRCP strongly believe that, in the case of the Atlantic Rim, the evidence speaks for itself. And that evidence compels us to pursue all remedies available under the law. America's sportsmen deserve as much."
8/21/07
WASHINGTON - The Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership (TRCP) filed suit Friday in U.S. District Court against the Department of the Interior for its mishandling of a process that cleared the way for rapidly accelerated energy development on public land in south-central Wyoming.
Specifically, the TRCP is protesting the Bureau of Land Management's authorization of 2,000 new oil and gas wells, along with 1,000 miles of road and 1,000 miles of pipeline, in an area known as the Atlantic Rim.
Under the recent BLM action, energy development would come despite the federal government's admission that "the natural setting would be converted to an industrialized setting by development" for multiple generations and that "implementation of the [project] would have adverse impact to suitable habitat for many wildlife species," including iconic big game species such as mule deer, elk and pronghorn antelope. (See Final Environmental Impact Statement, Atlantic Rim Project Area.)
The TRCP contends that the BLM is addressing neither the needs of sportsmen nor the fish and wildlife that populate the Atlantic Rim. The area is primarily used for hunting, wildlife viewing, grazing and pleasure driving - all activities that will be diminished by development.
The TRCP suit states that BLM has failed to fulfill its obligation under the National Environmental Policy Act and has committed numerous violations. Among those violations are BLM failures to evaluate a reasonable range of alternatives to intensive development, including a more measured approach that would allow development to proceed while maintaining fish and wildlife populations.
The approved plan allows for maximized development with no assurances for fish and wildlife for the future. The BLM also failed to define how losses in fish, wildlife and outdoor recreation will be mitigated if development proceeds as planned.
The TRCP further asserts that the BLM failed to properly analyze the cumulative impacts of both the project and nearby expanded development. It also points out that the agency ignored new scientific data and recent experiences in other well fields concerning the effects of energy development on populations of mule deer and sage grouse.
Additionally, the suit contends that BLM violated the Federal Land Policy and Management Act, which requires the agency to balance the concerns of the many users of America's public lands and to assure long-term sustainability of non-mineral resources.
"In these actions, we see a federal agency acting on behalf of only one user group, the energy industry," said TRCP Energy Initiative Manager Steve Belinda. "BLM is not fulfilling the multiple-use mandate it is legally obligated to follow. The time has come to hold the agency accountable."
"This suit is a major step for our organization and not one that we took lightly," said TRCP President and CEO George Cooper. "We reached this point only after years of exhausting every other avenue, including direct contacts in Washington and in the field and formal administrative appeals. But we at the TRCP strongly believe that, in the case of the Atlantic Rim, the evidence speaks for itself. And that evidence compels us to pursue all remedies available under the law. America's sportsmen deserve as much."
