Bridger-Teton officials have elected to continue a NEPA analysis on 44,700-acres of contested oil and gas leasing in the Wyoming Range, even after admitting that one energy company has exerted undo influence on the process.

The controversy comes at the end of a comment period on the analysis that drew more than 12,701 letters from the public. According to Forest Service officials, roughly 99 percent of the people who commented expressed opposition to the drilling.

Last week, Gov. Dave Freudenthal called Stanley Energy’s involvement in the environmental impact statement process “suspect” after he learned that Stanley officials participated in three meetings between Forest Service personnel and an outside contractor, Arcadis, that was hired to write the environmental impact statement.

Under the National Environ-mental Policy Act, companies that could potentially benefit from an environmental impact statement are barred from discussions with Forest Service personnel and the third-party contractors conducting the analysis.

According to officials, Stanley Energy not only participated in the meetings, but even hosted one at the Holland and Hart LCC offices in Cheyenne. The other meetings were conducted over the telephone. Stanley Energy also approved the selection of Arcadis as the contractor and is paying for the analysis, which is expected to cost between $250,000 and $500,000.

“Stanley is not participating any more in those meetings,” said Bridger-Teton spokeswoman Mary Cernicek. “The next step for the forest is to ensure that [the] direction set forth in the [memorandum of understanding] is followed and that Stanley Energy only has appropriate interactions with the forest and does not communicate with Arcadis directly.”

Cernicek defended the decision to continue with the analysis.

“The forest just closed the scoping period,” she said, explaining that the final decision in the EIS process lies with forest supervisor Kniffy Hamilton. “The analysis has yet to commence. We’re going to go forward with the analysis based on procedures and protocols set forth in the National Environmental Policy Act.”

Cernicek also said Stanley Energy would be allowed to continue to pay Arcadis for the work.

“Bridger-Teton does not have funds or the staffing to take on that workload,” Cernicek said.  

Lisa McGee, national forest and parks program director for the Wyoming Outdoor Council, said the decision to continue with the tainted process is unacceptable.

“It doesn’t resolve the concerns that have been raised,” she said. “We are very disheartened.”

Stanley Energy is apparently trying to influence the decision to drill, she said. The company weilding influence through the EIS process and in Washington, where the company has hired lobbyists who have tried to change legislation introduced by Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., that would protect the Wyoming Range from oil and gas drilling, she said.

“We’re seeing [Stanley Energy’s] fingerprints all over this process,” she said.

According to McGee, Stanley Energy doesn’t even have a vested interest in the leases after the Interior Board of Land Appeals rule the leases invalid because of concerns over air quality and the Canada lynx.

“Those leases are voidable,” she said. “They are in this kind of limbo category. To have one company funding and actively overseeing the process is unacceptable. What this should be is an objective process that takes a step back and looks at whether these leases should have been issued at all.

“It makes me wonder if this is not something that has been predetermined,” McGee continued. “To be treating a company as if they have valid rights is to risk a NEPA violation.”  

Cernicek acknowledged that Stanley Energy’s claim to the contested leases is uncertain.

“It’s unclear whether they have valid lease rights,” she said. “Nobody knows. There is not precedent for this. That’s why this decision is so important.”

McGee said that the Forest Service must work to regain the public’s trust in the process.

“[The Forest Service] needs to fund it themselves,” she said. “They should hire a new third-party contractor, not one that has proved its willingness to bend the rules. And, we’d like them to withdraw from the MOU ... to start the process over.

“It’s pretty disturbing,” McGee continued. “There is the real appearance that this company is trying to buy a favorable decision.”

‘A literally mountain-moving proposal’

In comments dated April 25 submitted to Bridger-Teton officials, Freudenthal led the charge, calling the plan “a literally mountain-moving proposal” and a recipe for “sawed-off mountain tops.”

Freudenthal’s comments come after an April 21 letter in which he lambasted Bridger-Teton officials for allowing Stanley Energy undo influence during the NEPA analysis to date. In his most recent letter, Freudenthal repeated calls for Forest Service officials to abandon the ongoing NEPA analysis.

“[A] pall of controversy hangs over this leasing SEIS because Stanley Energy – an interested stakeholder relative to a portion of these leases – has underwritten the analysis and is still operating under the suspicious [memorandum of understanding] with the Forest Service,” he said. “Public trust in this SEIS has eroded to a point where I do not believe it is possible to continue unless all vestiges of the current process are erased.”

In his comments, Freudenthal also raised issue with a number of environmental concerns including water quality, air quality and wildlife.

“The North Horse Creek, the Hoback River and its tributaries are important to many fish species – including the Snake River and Colorado River cutthroat trout,” Freudenthal said. “From potential concerns related to erosion and invasive weeds to air quality, surface water quality, ground water quality and the potential to affect the amount of water that is available to these fisheries, the Forest Service must weigh many issues and proceed with great care.”

In an April 28 letter, members of the Jackson Hole Chamber of Commerce said they strongly oppose any leasing and drilling for oil and gas in the Wyoming Range.

“The Wyoming Range provides outstanding recreational and tourism opportunities due to its incomparable scenic beauty, wildlife and natural environment,” the letter said.

Pinedale resident Thomas A. Curry, a former BLM employee that performed permit work for the oil and gas industry, said energy development is causing a “huge increase in air and pollution” in Sublette County, as evidenced by a number of ozone warnings issued by the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality this past winter.

“I am totally opposed to leasing any land in the Wyoming Range or on the Bridger-Teton National Forest for oil and gas development,” he said.

Disrupting critical wildlife habitat

Rock Springs resident Dorothy Savage said industrial development could also hurt wildlife. “The Wyoming Range is home to elk, mule deer, four species of cutthroat trout, sage grouse, lynx, grizzlies and wolves,” she wrote. “Oil and gas drilling on the range could disrupt critical wildlife habitat and migration routes.”

Bridger-Teton National Forest officials announced the SEIS in late January and hope to complete the document by next spring. The announcement came as legislation that would allow the buyout of Wyoming Range leases remains stuck in the U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. The late U.S. Sen. Craig Thomas, R-Wyo., conceived the bill and Barrasso, who filled Thomas’ seat, introduced the Wyoming Range Legacy Act of 2007 late last year.

The bill would protect more than 1.2 million acres of the range from future leasing and would allow existing leases to be bought back and the land preserved.

The Wyoming Outdoor Council, The Wilderness Society, and the Greater Yellowstone Coalition protested several lease sales starting in December  2005, saying the Bureau of Land Management ignored possible adverse effects of energy development on the 44,720 acres to the Canada lynx and air quality that should have been considered in the National Environmental Policy Act analysis. The Canada lynx is protected under the Endangered Species Act.

In May 2006, the Interior Board of Land Appeals denied a Bureau of Land Management motion to dismiss the case, and in June 2006, ruled that the BLM’s analysis was inadequate.

Stanley Energy and their representatives at Holland and Hart have not returned calls for comment placed during the past two weeks.

Though the official scoping comment period is closed, people can send written comments on the plan to Stephen Haydon, Forest Minerals Staff, Bridger-Teton National Forest, 340 N. Cache, P.O. Box 1888, Jackson, WY 83001-1888 or comments-intermtn-bridger-teton@fs.fed.us.