Wyoming

Wyoming Oil And Gas Drilling Halted On 120,000 Acres By Federal Judge

Published

2 years ago

July 25, 2024

Wyoming Oil And Gas Drilling Halted On 120,000 Acres By Federal Judge

A federal judge has told the Bureau of Land Management to temporarily halt issuing new oil and gas drilling permits on nearly 120,000 acres of public land in Wyoming until after a review of environmental impacts is completed by mid-January.

The July 16 decision by U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper in Washington, D.C., is the result of a need to reassess the environmental impacts associated with a controversial lease sale held by BLM’s Wyoming office in June 2022.

Cooper didn’t toss out the leases entirely, but any permitting on those leases has paused for six months while BLM conducts its own environmental review of the land won for lease in the 2022 auction by several energy companies, according to a copy of Cooper’s ruling.

Ryan McConnaughey, a spokesman for the Petroleum Association of Wyoming, said that the ruling turned out to be a “good one” for the industry because conservation groups that challenged the lease sales in the 2022 auction wanted them tossed out completely.

Cooper ruled that this wasn’t necessary because several of the environmental assessments related to sage grouse, mule deer and groundwater protections were “minor technical issues” that were easy to overcome.

“These leases could provide significant revenues over the lifetime of the wells if they are drilled,” said McConnaughey of royalties and other fees that the state could collect from the drilling.

Cooper’s ruling comes on the heels of his March verdict, which found that the BLM had not adhered to the National Environmental Policy Act when it decided to auction the land for oil and gas development over two years ago.

NEPA is a cornerstone environmental law that requires federal agencies to assess the environmental effects of their proposed actions prior to making decisions.

Siding With Wilderness Society

In siding with the Denver-based conservation group Wilderness Society and other organizations who brought the lawsuit against the BLM, Cooper highlighted that the federal lands management agency had not properly evaluated the potential environmental impacts of future drilling activities.

Cooper found that the agency failed to adequately explain how it considered the potential climate harms resulting from “greenhouse gas emissions produced by drilling operations.”

The conservation groups raised several challenges under NEPA and the Administrative Procedure Act to BLM’s assessment of the “foreseeable environmental impacts of future drilling on the leased parcels and explaining its decision to authorize a lease sale of this magnitude in light of its own estimates of the steep social costs from the projected greenhouse gas emissions,” according to the judge’s ruling.

The conservation groups said that BLM did not perform a “sufficiently granular analysis of impacts to groundwater and ignored the proven possibility that inadequate well casing or hydraulic fracturing near usable water sources may cause contamination,” according to the ruling.

Fracking involves fracturing formations in bedrock with a pressurized liquid to tap natural gas and oil deposits deep below the earth’s surface.

Cooper wrote that the BLM can’t approve new drilling permits on these leased parcels or authorize new “surface disturbing activities” until it completes its environmental review of the land by mid-January 2025.

The 120,000 acres that energy companies bid on in the 2022 auction are located in the obvious BLM territories throughout Wyoming, including the southwestern part of the state near Rock Springs, south of Pinedale in Sublette County and in the Powder River Basin area in Campbell and Converse counties.

Pat Maio can be reached at pat@cowboystatedaily.com.

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Wyoming

Wyoming 3A and 4A Boys Basketball Regionals Tip Off Postseason Play

Published

2 hours ago

March 6, 2026

Press Room

Wyoming 3A and 4A Boys Basketball Regionals Tip Off Postseason Play

The 2026 postseason has arrived for Wyoming High School boys’ basketball teams in Class 3A and 4A. They participate in regional tournaments from Thursday through Saturday. The regionals will be in Buffalo, Evanston, Gillette, and Lovell. Three sites will use the format: two wins qualify a team for the state tournament next week in Casper, or two losses eliminate a team. The 4A East Region has three loser-out first-round games on Thursday, followed by two days of games for seeding. The 4A East Regular Season champ draws a first-round bye and has qualified for the state tournament.

WYOPREPS 3A-4A BOYS BASKETBALL REGIONAL TOURNAMENT SCHEDULES

Except in the 4A East Regional, Friday starts with elimination games. The regional semifinals are on Friday night. The final seeds for next week’s state tournament will be determined on Saturday. The schedules below for this weekend are based on the brackets sent to WyoPreps. It is subject to change.

THURSDAY, MARCH 5:

Final Score: (3) Pinedale 58 (6) Mountain View 40

Final Score: (2) Cody 58 (7) Powell 46

Final Score: (1) Lovell 75 (8) Lyman 43

Final Score: (4) Lander 65 (5) Worland 40

FRIDAY, MARCH 6:

Game 5: Mountain View vs. Powell, noon – loser out

Game 6: Lyman vs. Worland, 1:30 p.m. – loser out

Game 7: Pinedale vs. Cody, 6 p.m. – semifinal

Game 8: Lovell vs. Lander, 7:30 p.m. – semifinal

SATURDAY, MARCH 7:

Game 9: Winner Game 5 vs. Loser Game 8, 11 a.m. – loser out

Game 10: Winner Game 6 vs. Loser Game 7, 11 a.m. – loser out (at LMS)

Game 11: Winner Game 9 vs. Winner Game 10, 5 p.m. – 3rd Place Game

Game 12: Winner Game 7 vs. Winner Game 8, 2 p.m. – Championship Game

THURSDAY, MARCH 5:

Final Score: (3) Douglas 85 (6) Rawlins 50

Final Score: (2) Wheatland 57 (7) Burns 40

Final Score: (5) Torrington 35 (4) Newcastle 28

Final Score: (1) Buffalo 69 (8) Glenrock 44

FRIDAY, MARCH 6:

Game 5: Rawlins vs. Burns, noon – loser out

Game 6: Newcastle vs. Glenrock, 1:30 p.m. – loser out

Game 7: Douglas vs. Wheatland, 6 p.m. – semifinal

Game 8: Torrington vs. Buffalo, 7:30 p.m. – semifinal

SATURDAY, MARCH 7:

Game 9: Winner Game 5 vs. Loser Game 8, noon – loser out

Game 10: Winner Game 6 vs. Loser Game 7, 1:30 p.m. – loser out

Game 11: Winner Game 9 vs. Winner Game 10, 7:30 p.m. – 3rd Place Game (if necessary)

Game 12: Winner Game 7 vs. Winner Game 8, 4:30 p.m. – Championship Game

Read More Boys Basketball News from WyoPreps

WyoPreps Boys Basketball Week 11 Scores 2026

WyoPreps Coaches and Media Basketball Polls 2-25-26

WyoPreps Boys Basketball Week 10 Scores 2026

WyoPreps Coaches and Media Basketball Polls 2-18-26

WyoPreps Boys Basketball Week 9 Scores 2026

WyoPreps Coaches and Media Basketball Polls 2-11-26

WyoPreps Boys Basketball Week 8 Scores 2026

WyoPreps Coaches and Media Basketball Polls 2-4-26

Nominate A Boys Basketball Player For Athlete Of The Week 2025-26

THURSDAY, MARCH 5:

Final Score: (NW-3) Kelly Walsh 64 (SW-2) Riverton 49

Final Score: (NW-1) Natrona County 77 (SW-4) Jackson 23

Final Score: (NW-2) Green River 50 (SW-3) Evanston 40

Final Score: (SW-1) Star Valley 62 (NW-4) Rock Springs 60 – Erickson makes a turnaround jumper at the buzzer off an offensive rebound for the Braves.

FRIDAY, MARCH 6:

Game 5: Riverton vs. Jackson, noon – loser out

Game 6: Evanston vs. Rock Springs, 1:30 p.m. – loser out

Game 7: Kelly Walsh vs. Natrona County, 6:30 p.m. – semifinal

Game 8: Green River vs. Star Valley, 8 p.m. – semifinal

SATURDAY, MARCH 7:

Game 10: Winner Game 6 vs. Loser Game 7, 11:30 a.m. – loser out

Game 9: Winner Game 5 vs. Loser Game 8, 1 p.m. – loser out

Game 11: Winner Game 10 vs. Winner Game 11, 4:30 p.m. – 3rd Place Game (at EMS)

Game 12: Winner Game 7 vs. Winner Game 8, 4:30 p.m. – Championship Game

THURSDAY, MARCH 5:

Game 1: (1) Sheridan = Bye

Final Score: (2) Cheyenne Central 75 (7) Cheyenne South 35 – Bison are eliminated

Final Score: (3) Thunder Basin 75 (6) Laramie 59 – Plainsmen are eliminated; Bolts qualify for state

Final Score: (4) Campbell County 59 (5) Cheyenne East 39 – loser out; Thunderbirds are eliminated; Camels qualify for state.

FRIDAY, MARCH 6:

Game 6: Cheyenne Central vs. Thunder Basin, 4:30 p.m. – semifinal

Game 5: Sheridan vs. Campbell County, 7:30 p.m. – semifinal

SATURDAY, MARCH 7:

Game 7: Loser Game 5 vs. Loser Game 6, 11:30 a.m. – 3rd Place Game

Game 8: Winner Game 5 vs. Winner Game 6, 2:30 p.m. – Championship Game

James Johnson Winter Showcase Basketball Tournament 2026

Photos from game action at the James Johnson Winter Showcase tournament in Cheyenne.

Gallery Credit: Courtesy: Shannon Dutcher

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Wyoming

Explore small streams of Wyo. with WGFD XStream Angler challenge

Published

14 hours ago

March 5, 2026

Press Room

Explore small streams of Wyo. with WGFD XStream Angler challenge

WYOMING — The Wyoming Game and Fish Department (WGFD) is rolling out its 2026 XStream Angler challenge, open to anyone looking to fish the smaller streams of Wyoming. The XStream Angler challenge is an opportunity for anglers in the state to explore over 150 streams with instream flow water rights. According to WGFD, instream flow […]

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Wyoming

Governor Gordon attends signing of Wyoming’s Healthy Choice Waiver in Washington D.C.

Published

1 day ago

March 5, 2026

Press Room

Governor Gordon attends signing of Wyoming’s Healthy Choice Waiver in Washington D.C.

CHEYENNE, Wyo. — Governor Mark Gordon’s office recently announced that the governor and Director of Family Services (DFS) Korin Schmidt traveled to Washington D.C. on Wednesday to meet with Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., as well as other Trump Administration officials, to sign the Wyoming’s Healthy Choice Waiver. A release […]

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