This story is part of our Quick Hits series. This series will bring you breaking news and short updates from throughout the state.
A court ruling that shut down a major natural gas expansion project in Sublette County has caught the eyes of Wyoming’s governor.
Gov. Mark Gordon announced in a Feb. 16 press release that his attorney general’s office filed a petition to the Interior Board of Land Appeals (IBLA) to reverse its decision.
The IBLA is an appellate review body that resolves public lands and natural resources disputes within the U.S. Department of the Interior and its Bureau of Land Management.
The IBLA issued its ruling Jan. 15, throwing out the Normally Pressured Lance (NPL) natural gas project, just south of Pinedale on about 141,00 acres. The project was proposed by Jonah Energy and was intended to be an expansion of the current Jonah Field, which was a top producing natural gas field in the country a couple decades ago.
The NPL was first announced in 2011 and was approved for up to 3,500 wells, about 900 more than the current Jonah Field. Very little of the NPL has been developed, as it has been tied up in court for years over sage grouse and air quality concerns. The latter is why the IBLA shut down the project, finding the proposal breached the Clean Air Act.
Gordon argues this was an overreach by the IBLA and that Wyoming has primacy for implementing the act.
“Our Department of Environmental Quality has primacy over air quality for a reason, they have the technical knowledge and the local experience to manage our resources responsibly,” Gordon said in a press release.
The release also said that on Feb. 13, the U.S. secretary of the interior stayed the IBLA’s decision until a review of the decision has been completed.
Gordon also noted the economic impacts of the project to the state. Specifically, he said over the life of the NPL, the state is expected to earn about $2 billion in severance taxes and $611 million in sales tax. Natural gas revenues have been the backbone for Sublette County’s services for decades, including schools, adult education classes, child care, bike paths and a recreation center.
Jonah Energy has said if the NPL doesn’t move forward, their Sublette County operations in the aging Jonah Field would wind down in the next few years.
Those against the NPL say it’ll further contribute to ozone air quality issues the area has historically struggled with and take away critical wildlife habitat.
