Forest Service OKs Wyoming oil well study

U.S. Forest Service officials have decided not to fast-track the drilling of a single, exploratory well on the Shoshone National Forest using a controversial categorical exclusion rule. Instead, the agency decided Monday it will prepare a more thorough environmental assessment to analyze the Scott Well No. 2 project. Environmentalists and some area residents have opposed the drilling plan for what they say would be the only functioning oil well inside the nation's first national forest. The categorical exclusion rule was used extensively during the Bush era to bypass painstaking environmental reviews for thousands of oil and gas drilling permits in Wyoming and across the West. Wind River District Ranger Rick Metzger said the agency had initially proposed utilizing a categorical exclusion for the project last fall. He said Forest Service officials decided to prepare the environmental assessment to "ensure" the issues and concerns brought forward during the scoping period and at an early February meeting were fully analyzed...more