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Thursday, August 1, 2013
Pioneering Climate Change Lawsuit To Reduce Natural Gas Leaks From Oil & Gas Operations Moves to Court of Appeals
Conservation groups appeal dismissal of lawsuit seeking to force BLM to protect the climate and stop the waste of natural gas resources caused by sloppy development
Contact: Jeremy Nichols (303) 437-7663
Additional Contacts:
Jim Jensen, Montana Environmental Information Center, (406) 431-9950
Bruce Baizel, Earthworks’ Oil & Gas Accountability Project, (970) 259-3353
Erik Schlenker-Goodrich, Western Environmental Law Center, (575) 613-4197
Great Falls, Mont.—Today, the Western Environmental Law Center, on behalf of the Montana Environmental Information Center, Earthworks’ Oil and Gas Accountability Project, and WildEarth Guardians (“Conservation Groups”) appealed to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn U.S. District Judge Sam Haddon’s recent dismissal of their lawsuit against the sale of 79,320 acres of oil and gas leases across Montana by the Bureau of Land Management (“BLM”).
The case seeks common sense action: to require oil and gas companies who develop publicly-owned federal energy resources to use proven, economical technologies to prevent the waste of natural gas to the atmosphere. If required, such technologies would increase the production of natural gas—a key domestic energy resource—while keeping that natural gas out of the atmosphere where, as methane, it is a greenhouse gas 105 times more potent over a 20-year time period than carbon dioxide. As the Government Accountability Office estimated in a 2010 report, BLM oil and gas development vented and flared 126 billion cubic feet of natural gas in 2008, a rough approximation of annual emissions. These emissions, using a 20-year warming period, are equivalent to the annual greenhouse gas emissions from just under 42 million passenger vehicles. In short, each metric ton of methane wasted to the atmosphere as greenhouse gas pollution from BLM oil and gas development is a metric ton of methane that harms our climate and a metric ton of energy that cannot be used by homes, schools, and businesses.
The dispute holds heightened importance in the wake of President Barack Obama’s Climate Action Plan which stated that “[c]urbing emissions of methane is critical to our overall effort to address global climate change.” In his June 25th speech detailing the Plan, the President also called for the country “to put people to work modernizing our natural gas infrastructure so that we can power more homes and businesses with cleaner energy.” These statements by the President reflect the U.S. Government Accountability Office’s 2010 report, which found that BLM could easily eliminate at least 40% of natural gas waste and methane pollution from federally authorized oil and gas development. More recent studies—such as by NRDC in 2012—conclude that natural gas waste and methane pollution can be reduced by 80%.
Nonetheless, the President’s call to curb methane emissions and modernize natural gas infrastructure to seize these opportunities is being stymied by BLM’s business-as-usual approach to oil and gas leasing. The specific dispute at issue in the Conservation Group’s appeal dates back to 2008, when the Conservation Groups challenged BLM leasing decisions, asserting that BLM did not consider climate change or lease-stage requirements to reduce methane pollution—i.e., natural gas waste—from oil and gas development. In 2010, the Conservation Groups settled that case with BLM, who suspended the leases and postponed future lease sales in Montana, North Dakota, and South Dakota while the agency revisited its environmental reviews.
In December 2010, BLM completed its environmental reviews. Those reviews remained deeply flawed because BLM again failed to consider alternatives that would help modernize federally-authorized oil and gas projects by eliminating natural gas waste—alternatives that would require lessees to use proven, economical technologies to keep natural gas out of the atmosphere and ‘in the pipeline’ for sale to and use by homes, schools, and businesses. The agency relied on its faulty reviews—as well as outdated 33-year old waste-prevention policies and the vague promise of future action—to justify its decisions to execute leases without specific, mandatory requirements to modernize development and curb natural gas waste and methane pollution. The Conservation Groups were thus forced to file suit in February 2011.
In the District Court, BLM—backed by industry groups including the American Petroleum Institute, Western Energy Alliance, Montana Chamber of Commerce, and Montana Petroleum Association—contended that the Conservation Groups did not have standing to challenge their decision because the emissions from future drilling activities would be only a fraction of total global, national, and state emissions. Judge Haddon agreed and dismissed the Conservation Groups’ lawsuit on June 14, 2013, giving rise to today’s appeal.
As Erik Schlenker-Goodrich, the Western Environmental Law Center’s Executive Director explains, BLM and industry’s argument misses the point. “In isolation, all emissions sources, including oil and gas leases, appear small. But these leases are the building block of a massive federal oil and gas program totaling roughly 38 million acres of leased lands across the U.S. and a perfect opportunity for action preventing natural gas waste and methane pollution.”
“The time for action is now. With Montana’s Glacier National Park melting and climate-fueled wildfires threatening Montana’s iconic natural heritage and communities, we have to take a stand to ensure that BLM does its part to stop natural gas waste and methane pollution in Montana,” emphasizes Jim Jensen, the Montana Environmental Information Center’s Executive Director.
“What’s amazing is that BLM is doing so little given that the Government Accountability Office, in 2010, told BLM that it had an opportunity to eliminate 40% of natural gas waste and methane pollution from federal oil and gas development—an opportunity to better safeguard the climate while increasing natural gas production and government royalties,” notes Jeremy Nichols, WildEarth Guardians’ Climate and Energy Program Director.
As Bruce Baizel, the Director of EarthWorks’ Oil and Gas Accountability Project explains, “BLM should seize the opportunity to set an example for oil and gas development across the United States by reducing natural gas waste and methane pollution in Montana through site-specific leasing and drilling decisions. But they’re not, and that’s a big mistake, undermining our country’s ability to ensure responsible oil and gas development.”
“This appeal will ensure that the Conservation Groups—and, indeed, the whole public—have a voice—i.e., the standing—to make sure that our public oil and gas resources in Montana and the rest of the country are developed safely and responsibly,” says Schlenker-Goodrich.
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