JULY 17, 2025 |
Photo – An oil rig – Bigfoot99 file photo
An all-thumbs approach by leftist environmental groups to prevent more than 4,000 permits for oil and gas wells was rejected on Tuesday by a U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling in Washington, D.C.
Governor Mark Gordon applauded the win for the states, saying in a statement that the court “clearly saw through these fabricated arguments” from fringe environmental groups.
The environmental organizations alleged that BLM had failed to adequately consider the climate and environmental justice impact of the wells. The wells were approved over an 18-month period from January 2021, when Joe Biden was inaugurated, to August 2022.
The district court held that the leftist groups lacked standing and dismissed the claims.
The Appeals Court in Washington, D.C. upheld the district court’s original ruling.
The plaintiffs at the heart of the case are familiar names to the courts and Wyomingites. They include the Center for Biological Diversity and Wildlife Guardians.
A group of oil and gas industry associations holding the challenged permits were joined by the State of Wyoming. The challengers moved to intervene in the case to defend the permit approvals by the BLM. The states moved to dismiss the case arguing that the complaining environmental groups lacked standing to challenge the permit approvals because they had not alleged any concrete or particularized injury.
In Wyoming, the wells at the heart of the case are located between Glenrock and Gillette east of Interstate 25 on either side of State Highway 59.
Governor Gordon said the court saw through the efforts of the Center for Biological Diversity “to stop oil and gas development through this scattershot approach, one that would have had significant impacts to energy production in Wyoming.”
