Victory for Pinedale Anticline

by Tom Darin

In late 2000, Yates Petroleum filed a lawsuit in federal court challenging a decision by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to impose restrictions on gas drilling activities within the massive Pinedale Anticline Project.

The suit attacked the BLM Pinedale Field Office's decision, claiming that important mitigation measures to safeguard wildlife and other resources violated its lease rights and other federal laws. In early 2001, WOC and other groups intervened in the case to defend the BLM's resource-protection action.

In March, the U.S. District Court for Wyoming dismissed the Yates challenge, holding that the company brought the case even though no mitigation measure had been applied to any of its drilling operations.

"It is abundantly clear," said the court, "that no decision has been made by the BLM to require directional drilling or the use of centralized production facilities by Yates."

Importantly, the court was impressed with the BLM's adaptive approach to environmental monitoring, noting that additional and continued public participation in monitoring oil and gas impacts was "laudable," "commendable," and a "novel addition to the arsenal of tools available to agencies such as the BLM that are responsible for management and use of public lands over a long period of time."

In addition, the court commented on the BLM's decision to protect wildlife, historic trails, viewsheds and cultural resources. "The voluminous record," it said, "satisfies the Court that [the National Environmental Policy Act] has in fact been satisfied and that the agency's decision adopting the [Record of Decision] is entitled to deference, was not arbitrary and capricious, an abuse of discretion or otherwise not in accordance with law."

This is an important victory, given the court's encouraging words regarding the BLM's innovative approach to adaptive monitoring and its efforts to protect multiple uses and the coexistence of a variety of natural values. We trust that industry has gotten the message: when considering the exploitation of oil and gas reserves on public lands that are required to be managed for multiple uses, the BLM has broad authority to impose reasonable mitigation measures to protect clean air and water, wildlife and cultural and other resources.