A federal circuit panel has ruled that the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) did not break any laws when it approved Jonah Energy LLC’s natural gas drilling project in Wyoming on land that includes sage grouse populations as well as migration paths for pronghorns.

“We conclude that BLM adequately collected and considered information on the sage-grouse and pronghorn, and selected a development plan that meets the statutory requirements,” the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit stated. The case is Western Watersheds Project v. U.S. Bureau of Land Management, No. 22-8022. Conservation groups had appealed the ruling.

Jonah Energy’s approved project, the Normally Pressured Lance (NPL), includes developing 3,500 natural gas wells across 141,000 acres in the Upper Green...