EnerVest, Ltd. v. Jewell

In December 2016, an oil and gas producer with federal oil and gas leasehold interests in the Uintah Basin, Utah, filed a lawsuit in the federal district court for the District of Utah against the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) seeking to compel BLM to grant 10 applications for permit to drill (APDs) that the company had submitted three months earlier. The plaintiffs alleged that BLM personnel had informed them that the APDs would not be approved because new guidance the Council on Environmental Quality had issued regarding the assessment of impacts on greenhouse gas emissions had rendered analysis in the environmental impact statement and record of decision issued in 2010 inadequate. The plaintiffs alleged that BLM had never specifically identified any new information that would require additional analysis and that BLM had a non-discretionary duty under the Mineral Leasing Act to act on the APDs within a mandatory timeframe.