Feds halt fast-track drilling

The U.S. Department of the Interior moved to halt fast-track approvals for drilling across the Rocky Mountains in a legal settlement reached just hours before President Barack Obama's announcement Wednesday that his administration will open offshore oil and gas reserves to development. That suit was brought in Salt Lake City federal court in 2008 by the Wilderness Society and other conservation groups that challenged the Bush administration's interpretation of the Energy Policy Act of 2005, which allowed federal land managers in some cases to issue fast-track drilling permits without a full environmental review. The U.S. attorney's office in Salt Lake City confirmed Wednesday that the settlement all but closes the loophole that approved nearly 7,000 oil and gas development projects from 2006 to 2008. Most of the fast-tracked projects were approved in Wyoming, New Mexico and Utah. Bruce Pendery, an attorney for the Wyoming Outdoor Council, said that under the settlement, the Interior Department has agreed not to use fast-track permitting in areas with "extraordinary circumstances," such as places considered ecologically significant. In addition, the federal Bureau of Land Management will halt use of so-called categorical exclusions to approve oil and gas projects pending the release of new guidelines, said Melodie Rydalch, a spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney's office in Salt Lake City...more

Since the feds settled, the enviros will get their attorneys fees and go sue someplace else.