Judge tosses drilling policy expanding environmental review

A federal judge in Wyoming on Friday threw out a 2010 Obama administration policy that rolled back exemptions from environmental review for certain oil-and-gas activities on federal lands.  Judge Nancy Freudenthal ruled that the Interior Department and U.S. Forest Service policies that scaled-back the exemptions were issued without proper public notice and comment. Freudenthal did not address the substance of the challenge brought last year by the Western Energy Alliance, an industry group that represents oil-and-gas drillers active in western states. The industry group alleged the policy ran afoul of a 2005 energy law that required the exemptions – called "categorical exclusions" – for certain drilling activities in an effort to expedite drilling...more