Wyoming’s revenue could be devastated in the near term by the pause in oil and gas permitting on federal lands, Gov. Mark Gordon warned on Wednesday.

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In a letter to Acting Interior Secretary Scott de La Vega, Gordon outlined his concerns over Secretarial Order 3395 issued in January regarding the pause in issuing federal permits for 60 days. 

The governor in his letter said “it is Interior’s view” that the order “has not resulted in a slowdown of permitting…for existing operations under valid leases. To the contrary in Wyoming: what we see here is a backlog of actions tied to existing operations under valid leases” at Interior’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) state offices.

The two-month pause came “with severe implications that devastate the State of...