The Center for Biological Diversity and the Alabama Ornithological Society filed an appeal Wednesday challenging the Trump administration’s effort to open Conecuh National Forest to oil and gas drilling.
The administration moved in June to include thousands of acres in the national forest in an oil and gas lease sale.
The Center for Biological Diversity, a nonprofit founded in 1989, says it works “to secure a future for all species, great and small, hovering on the brink of extinction.” The group has consistently opposed drilling in the forest.
The Trump administration, meanwhile, has consistently sided with the oil and gas industry while promoting what it calls a “Golden Era of American Energy Dominance.” Energy Secretary Chris Wright has publicly criticized regulations on greenhouse gases such as methane and state regulation of oil drilling.
The appeal describes potential environmental harm from drilling in the forest. It also alleges that the Bureau of Land Management violated the Endangered Species Act, the Federal Land Policy and Management Act and the National Environmental Policy Act.
The groups allege that the bureau failed to formally consult with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, prepare an environmental impact statement, properly assess alternatives or establish an environmental baseline. They also argue that the alleged National Environmental Policy Act violations caused the bureau to violate its Federal Land Policy and Management Act mandate to prevent “unnecessary or undue degradation.”
The appeal describes the potential consequences of allowing the federal government’s decision to stand:
This appeal represents Appellants’ final opportunity to challenge—and hopefully avert—extensive oil and gas development in the Conecuh National Forest, the environmental consequences of which will be severe and adverse, and the last chance to have those consequences examined on a forest-wide scale. Should the Board deny a stay, the decision will allow the BLM to immediately push forward with lease sales for oil and gas development across the entire forest.
“It’s appalling that the government is barreling forward to sacrifice the Conecuh National Forest to the oil and gas industry for profit,” Center for Biological Diversity senior attorney Lindsay Reeves said in a statement.
Reeves said the “fragile forest houses some of the nation’s most imperiled wildlife, who depend on the Conecuh to survive. The forest is a biological and recreational oasis that needs to be protected, not plundered.”
The groups asked the Interior Board of Land Appeals to stay the Bureau of Land Management’s decision accepting the U.S. Forest Service’s assessments that additional drilling in Conecuh National Forest would not have significant environmental effects.
