A federal district court in Salt Lake City late Wednesday handed the federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM) a defeat in its fight to open up more federal lands to oil and natural gas leasing, ruling that BLM violated federal environmental laws when it sold leases on 16 parcels of so-called “wilderness-quality lands” in southern Utah.

Environmental group attorneys issued a statement lauding the ruling and predicting it would have “West-wide” implications in curbing BLM efforts, but it was not clear what it meant for lands already leased in the West.

“This is a tremendously important decision,” said Stephen Bloch, staff attorney for the Southern Utah Wilderness Society. Sharon Buccino, land program manager for the Natural Resources Defense Council, said the court’s ruling showed that “we don’t need to sacrifice our wild and precious places to meet our energy needs.”

The lawsuit had challenged the first oil/gas lease sale following a controversial 2003 settlement between Utah staff officials and the federal Interior Department. It was commonly called the “no more wilderness” settlement, the environmental groups said in making the announcement on the court’s action.

BLM allegedly was given the right to make the lease sales in some of Utah and parts of other western states. Since then, BLM reportedly has sold oil/gas leases on more than 100 separate parcels in Utah alone, totaling more than 125,000 acres. The agency itself, when pressed, acknowledges the “wilderness caliber” of the lands, according to the Wilderness Alliance and NRDC attorneys.

“It is common sense that the BLM should consider an area’s wilderness character before deciding whether to allow oil/gas drilling,” said NRDC’s Buccino. “Now the court has ruled that it’s the law.”

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