Governor Matt Mead is urging the Bureau of Land Management to select a preferred alternative plan for oil and gas development in Carbon and Sweetwater Counties.
The BLM’s 900-page Draft Environmental Impact Statement focuses on the proposed Continental Divide-Creston Natural Gas Development, or CD-C Project.
Governor Mead says the project could create thousands of jobs, but he wants to make sure it’s done right.
“I think that they need to try to address what we call a preferred alternative in there,” says Mead, “Because these are hugely lengthy documents and for individuals to try to wade through them and try to say so what is the direction, what are the parameters on this I think is difficult. And normally they do that.”
Mead says the state, the BLM and industry need to work together to ensure the project is done in a way that reduces environmental impacts and maximizes production.
“It’s the nature of what we need to do in Wyoming, we need robust energy development and we need a clean environment. I don’t accept the either/or proposition. We need and want both.”
Operators have proposed a development that would include 8,950 oil and gas wells.