Scott Streater | March 3, 2011 | Reposted from Energy and Environment Land Letter
The Obama administration’s controversial new “wild lands” policy could face its first legal challenge in northwest Wyoming’s McCullough Peaks, but not from pro-development interests and Republican lawmakers who have been most critical of the policy’s implications.
Rather, environmental groups are prepared to challenge the Bureau of Land Management’s recent approval of an oil and natural gas exploration project that will affect roughly 14,000 acres of wilderness-quality land in the northwest Wyoming desert badlands tucked between the Bighorn and Shoshone national forests.
The Rocktober Unit Project, to be undertaken by Denver-based Bill Barrett Corp., would allow for the drilling of three 15,000-foot-deep exploratory wells in the McCullough Peaks area, and as many as four additional wells if the initial three produce sufficient quantities of natural gas. The company has also proposed to expand its pipeline and compressor station network to move gas from the McCullough Peaks drill sites to market, according to BLM.
[Read more.]
Recent Comments