A judge for the US District Court for the District of Columbia has barred drilling for the second time in two years on over 300,000 acres of federal land in Wyoming because the government failed to sufficiently consider the drilling’s impacts on climate change.

Two environmental nonprofit organizations, WildEarth Guardians and Physicians for Social Responsibility, sued the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) for allegedly failing to “sufficiently consider climate change when authorizing oil and gas leasing on federal land in Wyoming, Utah, and Colorado.” The groups contend that BLM failed to take a “hard look” at greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the leases, therefore violating federal law. The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) requires that federal agencies “consider the environmental consequences of their actions.”

Friday’s decision marks the second time in two years that the court has ordered BLM to conduct further environmental review concerning leases in Wyoming. In 2019 the court found that BLM’s assessments “failed to take a hard look at the climate change impacts of oil and gas drilling” because they (1) failed to quantify and forecast drilling-related GHG emissions; (2) failed to adequately consider such emissions from “downstream use” of oil/gas produced on the leased parcels; and (3) failed to compare those GHG emissions to state, regional, and national GHG emissions forecasts, and “other foreseeable regional and national BLM projects.” The court held that the agency failed to comply with the requirements of NEPA and ordered it to conduct additional environmental analyses of the 282 separate oil and gas leases.

In a 35-page opinion, the court concluded that BLM’s supplemental assessment did “not comply with federal law and does not adequately consider the climate change impacts of the oil and gas leasing decisions in accordance with [the] Court’s prior opinion.” The court further stated that BLM failed to comply with its own direction to “consider the cumulative impact of GHG emissions generated by past, present, or reasonably foreseeable BLM lease sales in the region and nation.”

The court also cited several factual errors throughout the agency’s supplemental environmental assessment: “The number of errors suggests a sloppy and rushed process, not the accurate scientific analysis that is essential to implementing NEPA.” The court emphasized that NEPA compliance is “not merely a bureaucratic exercise,” rather a tool to inform “excellent action” through decision-making.

Moving forward, the court gave BLM a third chance to “address the deficiencies identified;” however, it prohibited the agency from issuing new oil and gas drilling permits on the Wyoming leases.