Conservation groups sue BLM over Colorado and Wyoming oil leases

Two conservation groups, Wilderness Workshop and The Wilderness Society, have filed a lawsuit against the federal government in the United States District Court in Denver. The suit alleges that the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) violated federal law by approving oil and gas lease sales in Colorado and Wyoming this past June.

The plaintiffs argue that the BLM disregarded potential harm to environmentally sensitive areas and crucial big game migration corridors. The lawsuit names the U.S. Department of the Interior, Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, and the acting BLM directors for Colorado and Wyoming as defendants.

Legal representatives from Earthjustice claim the agency failed to follow its own regulations and ignored regulatory criteria, including the National Environmental Policy Act and the Federal Land Policy and Management Act. The suit alleges that despite internal analyses showing conflicts with wildlife habitats, the BLM offered hundreds of thousands of acres for lease without withholding parcels based on established preference criteria.