This article comes to us courtesy of California Watch.
The Center for Biological Diversity and Sierra Club are suing the Bureau of Land Management to prevent gas drilling known as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, on federal lands. The lawsuit contends that the bureau leased more than 2,500 acres in Monterey and Fresno counties to oil company representatives without doing a thorough analysis of the potential environmental impacts of fracking.
The leases were auctioned in September for $257,051 to Neil Ormond, an agent for Austin-based Vinton Exploration; LoneTree Energy & Associates, a Colorado-based broker for an undisclosed oil and gas exploration company; and Vintage Production California, LLC, a subsidiary of Occidental Petroleum.
In their Dec. 8 complaint [PDF], the plaintiffs argue that the auction violated the National Environmental Policy Act, which requires the bureau to do a thorough analysis of the environmental impacts of any oil or gas drilling on the land. (Read more...)
