WASHINGTON (CN) — A federal judge heard oral arguments Wednesday in a pair of consolidated lawsuits that seek to block the sale of oil and gas drilling projects that would produce emissions equal to 400,000 new cars, but appeared reluctant to accept the conservation groups’ position.
The first lawsuit, brought by the Dakota Resource Council, the Center for Biological Diversity and the Sierra Club, among others, challenges the Bureau of Land Management’s decision to approve the June 2022 sale of 173 gas and oil lease parcels — encompassing 144,000 acres across eight states — after conducting seven separate environmental analyses rather than a cumulative one.
Wyoming makes up the majority of the parcels with 123. The approval also includes 23 parcels across Montana, North Dakota and South Dakota, six in New Mexico and Oklahoma, six in Colorado, five in Nevada and one in Utah.
The Dakota Resource Council argued that the agency violated the National Environmental Policy Act, which requires that projects with “cumulative environmental impacts” be considered together, in particular the projects’ carbon emissions.
A second suit, brought by The Wilderness Society and Friends of the Earth, specifically targets oil and gas leases in Wyoming, which makes up the vast majority of the sales at 120,000 acres.
The Wilderness Society argued in the complaint that BLM had failed to consider the impacts of the potential development on nearby wildlife and underground aquifers.
U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper, a Barack Obama appointee, scheduled a joint hearing to consider the federal government’s motions for summary judgment in both cases.
Cooper, who indicated at the start of the hearing that the case was one of his first on the topic of oil and gas leasing, asked attorneys from each party to answer a series of questions as to whether the existing case law even allowed him to review BLM’s justification for conducting several assessments.
The Dakota Resource Council said that BLM had wrongfully failed to consider the social cost of the potential greenhouse gases emitted by new projects. On Wednesday, attorney Melissa Hornbein of Western Environmental Law said the estimated cost ranged between $416 million and $4.7 billion.
Justice Department attorney Luther Hajek explained that BLM and other agencies are reluctant to consider the social cost of carbon in environmental analyses due to a lack of scientific consensus on the issue.
The lack of consensus makes it difficult for the government to determine what counts as a significant cost, as there is no definite threshold to refer to.
“Even if I agree, it seems like there’s a longstanding D.C. Circuit precedent to affirm agencies hesitancy to consider social cost,” Cooper said.
He did take issue with the agency’s apparent reversal on a promise to follow a part of President Joe Biden’s 2021 executive order — which paused oil and gas leases before being blocked by a Louisiana federal judge — that directed the Interior Department to address climate impacts in leasing reports.
Cooper pointed out that environmental groups were reasonably frustrated at the government apparently “throwing up their hands” by claiming a lack of a specific threshold on the social cost of carbon blocks any consideration of the project’s climate impacts.
In their suit, the Wilderness Society argued BLM failed to consider how the nearly 120,000 acres of potential oil and gas development throughout Wyoming could affect local wildlife, including an important habitat for the greater sage grouse.
The sage grouse has suffered significant population declines due to loss of habitat, with an estimated population of 200,000-400,000, and has been listed as near threatened.
Cooper appeared to side with the government on the issue, noting the bureau was not required to conduct a cost-benefit analysis, but even if it was, it seemed that he could infer the agency had decided the potential ecumenic and energy production benefits outweighed an unquantifiable cost to the climate and environment.
A ruling on the issue in both cases is expected at the end of March.
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