The federal district court in the District of Columbia vacated the 2020 environmental impact statement (EIS) and record of decision (ROD) for the Converse County Oil and Gas Project in Wyoming’s Powder River Basin, finding that the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) failed to conduct an adequate analysis of reasonable alternatives. In particular, the court found that BLM violated its obligation under NEPA to “rigorously evaluate a reasonable range of alternatives” by eliminating a greenhouse gas reduction alternative and an alternative that reduced the pace of oil and gas development. The court found that vacatur was warranted because BLM’s errors “were the type that prompts ‘substantial doubt’ that the agency chose correctly” and because the federal defendants and the intervenors failed to show that vacatur of the EIS and ROD would be so disruptive as to justify departing from the normal remedy of vacatur. The court also considered the environmental harm from keeping the EIS in place, noting that the project was “already emitting and will continue to emit significant levels of greenhouse gases that will contribute to climate change and impart other significant environmental harm, impacting human health, sensitive natural resources, landscapes, and wildlife.” The court denied the plaintiffs’ motion to file a second amended complaint, finding that the new claims related to 2025 environmental assessments, categorical exclusions, and applications for permits to drill that were “superficially similar” to the 2020 actions challenged in this case but rested on separate procedures and documents and constituted new, final agency actions. The court also found that allowing the plaintiffs to supplement the complaint would prejudice the defendants and intervenors.

Challenge to the Converse County Oil and Gas Project in Wyoming's Powder River Basin.

Powder River Basin Resource Council v. U.S. Department of the Interior

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D.C. Federal Court Vacated EIS for Wyoming Oil and Gas Project for Failure to Consider Reasonable Alternatives

Filed

United States of America

District of Columbia

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D.C. Federal Court Vacated EIS for Wyoming Oil and Gas Project for Failure to Consider Reasonable Alternatives

Policy instrument

Risk

Impacted group

Fossil fuel

Greenhouse gas

Economic sector

Adaptation/resilience