US will no longer require green analysis on thousands of oil, gas leases

By Timothy Gardner

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. said on Thursday that it will no longer require an environmental impact statement for thousands of oil and gas leases across the U.S. West, in a move aligning with President Donald Trump’s efforts to lift hurdles on drilling.

The Interior Department said it will no longer require its Bureau of Land Management to prepare an environmental impact statement, or EIS, for about 3,244 oil and gas leases that had been the target of litigation by environmental groups.

The leases are spread across Colorado, Montana, New Mexico, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah and Wyoming.

Former President Joe Biden’s BLM had announced on January 16 that it would prepare the analysis after lawsuits challenged the leases and a court had remanded the matter to BLM for further environmental analysis.

Environmental impact statements are detailed analyses on the impact of federal actions that will have a significant effect on the environment. They are required for major projects by the bedrock 1970 U.S. National Environmental Policy Act.

U.S. President Donald Trump has long sought to fight NEPA’s requirements. On January 20, his first day back in office, he signed an executive order aiming to speed up energy permitting by requiring the head of the White House’s Council on Environmental Quality to propose doing away with its NEPA requirements, including consideration of greenhouse gas emissions of major projects.

Interior said that the BLM was evaluating options for compliance with NEPA for the oil and gas leasing decisions.

(Reporting by Timothy Gardner; Editing by Mark Porter and Bernadette Baum)