U.S. Department of the Interior administrative judges who invalidated approval of an $18 billion Sublette County gas field in January will no longer get the final say over the case. It will instead be decided by Interior Secretary Doug Burgum.

On Thursday, Burgum’s office issued a memo that explained that he had taken jurisdiction over the appeals case that, in January, halted Jonah Energy’s 3,500-well “Normally Pressured Lance” gas field. Until the Interior secretary’s “final review” of the case was completed, he was also “staying” the decision, according to the filing. 

Gov. Mark Gordon’s office sent word of the case’s change of status on Monday. The governor also announced that the attorney general’s office had petitioned the Interior Board of Land Appeals’ decision, which faulted the Bureau of Land Management for not complying with “unambiguous” regulations governing ground-level ozone, a human health hazard.

A well pad built within Jonah Energy’s NPL gas field on federal land in the Green River Basin. (Mike KoshmrlWyoFile)

“Our Department of Environmental Quality has primacy over air quality for a reason, they have the technical knowledge and the local experience to manage our resources responsibly,” Gordon wrote in a statement. “We are filing this petition to defend Wyoming’s right to manage its own affairs and to ensure that our energy industry, and the communities that depend on it, are not sidelined by unfounded administrative hurdles.”

Signed by Assistant Attorney General Shannon Leininger, Wyoming’s petition argues that Clean Air Act issues could be addressed by amending the decision, rather than throwing it out. 

“The Bureau can promptly address IBLA’s concerns on remand without having to redo years of work of the original analysis,” the petition states. 

Doing away with the gas field entirely would negatively impact Wyoming, the state attorneys argued. It’s expected to create over 900 jobs and generate nearly $18 billion in revenue that would return around $2 billion in severance taxes and $611 million in sales tax.

Interior judges Clifford Stevens and David Gunter’s January ruling had invalidated BLM’s decision allowing Jonah Energy to develop the 220-square-mile NPL gas field. Those plans took years to develop and withstood legal complaints focused on impacts to wildlife habitat. 

The administrative judges’ decision surprised many in Wyoming. The WildEarth Guardians appeal, which challenged the gas field, was filed in 2018. 

WildEarth Guardians has until Feb. 25 to file responses to the petitions from Wyoming, the BLM and Jonah Energy, according to Rebecca Sobel, the organization’s climate and health director. 

“This case is not about politics,” Sobel wrote in an email. “It is about whether federal agencies must follow the Clean Air Act in communities that already struggle with unhealthy ozone levels. In a designated nonattainment area, you cannot approve thousands of new wells based on incomplete emissions math.”

Mike Koshmrl reports on Wyoming's wildlife and natural resources. Prior to joining WyoFile, he spent nearly a decade covering the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem’s wild places and creatures for the Jackson...

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  2. So, increasing ozone in an area already plagued with an extraordinary number of high ozone days not withstanding, a well pad every 60 acres or less would be outstanding! Money, money, money! Screw future generations! Ain’t nuthin out there but sagebrush anyway! WTF!

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