US judge suspends oil and gas drilling in Wyoming over climate change

A US federal court judge has blocked oil and gas drilling in Wyoming, citing the government’s failure to adequately address potential risks to climate change.

The ruling was in response to a lawsuit filed by WildEarth Guardians and Physicians for Social Responsibility challenging leases granted by the previous administration under Obama in 2015 and 2016.

In this case, the defendants are the US Department of the Interior (DoI) and its Bureau of Land Management (BLM).

The plaintiffs contended that the officials failed to account for the impact of leasing public lands for fracking on climate change.

The lawsuit pertained to more than 460,000 acres of public lands covering 282 leases in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming awarded during the period under review.

However, the judgement only addressed the leases in Wyoming and will affect drilling across nearly 300,000 acres.

The decision could prove to be a setback to US President Donald Trump’s push for expansion of oil, gas and coal production on federal lands.

US District Court for the District of Columbia judge Rudolph Contreras ordered the BLM to undertake studies and analyse about the impact of oil and gas leases on climate change before issuing drilling permits on the leases.

In his ruling, Contreras stated: “Having reviewed the record and the relevant law, the court concludes that – withholding judgment on whether BLM’s leasing decisions were correct – BLM did not sufficiently consider climate change when making those decisions.

“Given the national, cumulative nature of climate change, considering each individual drilling project in a vacuum deprives the agency and the public of the context necessary to evaluate oil and gas drilling on federal land before irretrievably committing to that drilling.”

Last year, a study commissioned by the DoI determined that greenhouse gas emissions from the production and consumption of fossil fuels from public lands account for 25% of all US climate pollution.

Responding to the judgement, WildEarth Guardians Climate and Energy Program director Jeremy Nichols said: “This ruling is a triumph for our climate. To limit greenhouse gas emissions, we have to start keeping our fossil fuels in the ground and putting an end to selling public lands for fracking. This decision is a critical step toward making that happen.”

The latest ruling comes after US District Court Judge Brian Morris last November blocked the construction of the proposed $8bn Keystone XL oil pipeline designed to transport oil from Canada to the US.

The judge in the case faulted the administration for not adequately considering the cumulative effects of greenhouse gas emissions before approving the pipeline project in 2017.