Judge voids nearly 1 million acres of oil and gas leases, saying Trump policy undercut public input
A federal judge in Idaho has voided nearly 1 million acres of oil and gas leases on federal lands in the West, saying that a Trump administration policy that limited public input on those leases was “arbitrary and capricious.”
The ruling Thursday by U.S. Chief Magistrate Judge Ronald E. Bush represented a win for environmentalists, who challenged the leasing policy as part of a broader effort to block drilling in habitat for the imperiled greater sage-grouse. The contested area spans 67 million acres across 11 Western states.
As the Trump administration has pushed to expand domestic energy production — earlier this month the Interior Department celebrated the fact that last year more than 1 billion barrels of oil were produced from drilling offshore and on public land — it has adopted several measures to curb public comment on regulatory decisions. While the effort has accelerated the timeline for drilling, it has also raised legal concerns.
Drew Caputo, an attorney for the environmental group Earthjustice, said in an email Friday that administration officials “almost treat the public like an inconvenience that might slow down or get in the way of them passing out special interest favors to their friends in industry.” [Continue reading…]