Wyoming

A federal judge said three energy trade associations will be allowed to intervene in a lawsuit filed last summer by two environmental groups over the Department of Interior’s (DOI) decision to approve nearly 400 oil and gas leases in three western states.

Three days after two industry groups had done the same, Montana and Wyoming filed a separate lawsuit last week against the Interior Department (DOI) over a final rule to reduce venting and flaring from oil and gas operations on public and tribal lands.

Chevron Corp. is selling nearly 100,000 net acres in a natural gas-rich area of Wyoming and Colorado as it trims its U.S. onshore inventory.

Attorneys for the federal government have appealed last week’s ruling by a federal judge in Wyoming that the Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) does not have the authority to enforce a rule governing hydraulic fracturing (fracking) on public and tribal lands.

Memorial Production Partners LP (MEMP) plans to sell some of its noncore assets in the Permian Basin and assets in Colorado and Wyoming to undisclosed buyers.

Running counter to national trends, ozone pollution levels in seven counties in Wyoming have worsened this year, according to the annual “State of the Air 2016” report from the American Lung Association (ALA), which was released on Wednesday.

Running counter to national trends, ozone pollution levels in seven counties in Wyoming have worsened this year, according to the annual “State of the Air 2016” report from the American Lung Association (ALA), which was released on Wednesday.

The Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) urged a federal appellate court to overturn a Wyoming court’s injunction against enforcement of a rule governing hydraulic fracturing (fracking) on public and tribal lands, saying the lower court judge “erred” and had a “crabbed view” of federal regulatory authority.

A Wyoming coalition of counties and conservation groups last Monday filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court of Wyoming in Cheyenne, challenging efforts to protect the greater sage grouse over parts of 11 western states, including Wyoming, where Gov. Matt Mead has embraced the efforts (see Daily GPI,Sept. 22, 2015).