New Drilling Plan Threatens the Wyoming Range
Plains Exploration and Production Company (“Plains”), a Houston-based company with no experience drilling on national forest land, is seeking permission to drill 136 wells from 17 well pads and construct or upgrade 29 miles of roads.
The project is planned for the Hoback Basin in the northern reaches of the Wyoming Range, 7 miles south of Bondurant. The project would occur entirely on the Bridger-Teton National Forest in one of its largest roadless areas. This remote refuge provides crucial habitat for sensitive species like lynx, as well as important summer range and migration corridors for big game animals.
Drilling a gas field in middle of the forest would not constitute the “greatest good for the greatest number.” Rather, it would displace traditional multiple uses that are now a key driver of western Wyoming’s recreation-based economy.
• View official scoping notice
• Read Letters and comments of opposition
• Jackson Hole News and Guide Editorial
Bad Idea Gets Worse
This isn’t the first time we’ve seen this proposal. In 2006, Plains proposed a 3-well/1 pad “exploratory” project and the draft EIS released in spring 2007 analyzed impacts from only these 3 wells. This small-scale proposal raised doubts when Plains’ CEO bragged about his intention to develop a whole field in the forest, not just a few wells. Public outcry spurred Plains to step back and withdraw that EIS, but now the company has come clean with its major drilling plans. This new EIS will examine Plains’ much expanded proposal.
Even with Plains’ original and much smaller proposal there was tremendous opposition. More than 19,000 citizens wrote to the Forest Service opposing the project and Governor Freudenthal, the Wyoming Tourism Board, the Jackson Hole Chamber of Commerce, the Wyoming Game and Fish Commission, the Wyoming Outfitters and Guides Association, and others all expressed serious concerns. This larger project should generate even more opposition and you can help.
Expanded Proposal at a Glance
Plains’ proposal would allow:
- Drilling up to136 wells (and possibly more, as the number could go up between scoping and Draft EIS) drilled from 17 well pads
- Construction or upgrading of over 29 miles of roads
- 400 acres of new surface disturbance
- Drilling in the one of the largest roadless areas in the Bridger-Teton NF, the 315,647 acre Grayback Ridge roadless area
- Drilling in an area of crucial habitat for threatened species that also contains summer ranges and birthing areas for big game, and is located in the path of important migration corridors for mule deer, elk, moose, lynx and pronghorn.