The U.S. Forest Service (USFS) said Tuesday it would conduct an additional environmental study on a controversial plan to drill 136 natural gas wells in a portion of the Bridger-Teton National Forest in the Wyoming Range.

Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead earlier this year expressed concerns about Plains Exploration and Production Co.’s (PXP) master development plan for Eagle Prospect and Noble Basin, which call for drilling 136 wells from 17 pads in the forest (see Daily GPI, March 16). PXP’s proposal is in the draft environmental impact statement (DEIS) phase at the USFS.

The USFS indicated last January that no gas and oil drilling would be permitted on 70 square miles of the range (see Daily GPI, Jan. 31). In that decision, which affected 44,720 net acres, Supervisor Jacqueline Buchanan wrote that the potential harm to Canada’s lynx, mule deer, air quality and recreational opportunities all concerned her.

Buchanan said Tuesday the USFS needed to conduct an additional environmental study and seek public input on an alternate plan for development after receiving 60,000 comments from the public on the DEIS, 98% of which were opposed oil and gas drilling in the area.

“We didn’t make the decision in a vacuum. We worked with the company,” said Buchanan, referring to the USFS move to place the PXP project on temporary hold.

“Plains Exploration has a legal right to this drilling,” she said. “My challenge is to move the project forward in an environmentally safe way,” she said. The comments mostly pointed out that the producer’s “proposed action and [the] alternatives were outside the requirements in the forest plan for road density.” Buchanan said the USFS hopes to issue the supplemental analysis in either January or early February, which would be followed by a 45-day comment period. The final EIS could be finished by mid-summer, which would be 60-90 days later than what was originally planned.

The new alternative by the USFS would limit the project’s road density and require some of the infrastructure to be moved. PXP wants to drill on its federally leased land in the Hoback rim area south of Bondurant, WY. PXP received the leases in 1994 and a federal analysis began in 2005, making it one of the “most heavily analyzed public lands projects in Wyoming,” a PXP spokesman said.

“A tremendous amount of public resources have been spent reviewing this project for the past six years, and we believe it is appropriate to get a final decision out so the next steps in the process can move forward,” spokesman Ed Memi said. “PXP remains confident that the project can be done in an environmentally sound manner with a minimal amount of disturbance necessary.”

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