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The National Environmental Policy Act prohibits companies that could potentially benefit from an environmental impact statement from participating in discussions with officials conducting the analysis.

According to Freudenthal, Stanley not only participated in the meetings but also hosted one at Holland & Hart's law offices in Cheyenne, Wyo. The other meetings were conducted over the telephone. Stanley also participated in the selection of the contractor that is performing the analysis and is paying for the analysis.

"The forest has stopped the participation of Stanley Energy in those meetings," said Bridger-Teton spokeswoman Mary Cernicek.

Despite the governor's concerns that Stanley's participation had "tainted" the whole EIS process, Cernicek said Bridger-Teton officials are determined to move forward with the analysis.

"The scoping period just ended, so the analysis hasn't even begun yet," Cernicek said. "The forest still retains full decisionmaking authority."

In formal comments on the Bridger-Teton's plan delivered April 25, Freudenthal reiterated his concern over the plan to reactivate leases in the Wyoming Range, calling the plan "a literally mountain-moving proposal" that would ultimately lead to "sawed off mountaintops."

In his most recent letter, Freudenthal reiterated his apprehension about continuing with the EIS process. He noted "how strange a decision" it was for Bridger-Teton officials to allow Stanley Energy, through a "memorandum of understanding," to pay for the supplemental EIS.

"[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 MOU with the Forest Service," Freudenthal wrote. "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."

Wildlife and environmental concerns

In his comments, Freudenthal also highlighted specific wildlife concerns, including potential effects on habitat for elk, moose, mule deer and pronghorn, as well as big game migration corridors. The governor also expressed concerns about effects on air and water quality, fisheries and sensitive species such as sage grouse.

"At the end of the day, the Forest Service must carefully examine whether it wants to issue leases that will ultimately lead to sawed off mountain tops and relatively vast expanses of impacted crucial habitat in order to accommodate 50-acre well pads," he wrote.

Lisa Dardy McGee, director of the Wyoming Outdoor Council's national parks and forests program, said her group is also disappointed Bridger-Teton officials decided to move forward with the EIS process. "We had hoped that the Bridger-Teton would take significant steps to remedy the process," she said. "The public has called for specific steps, but they have not responded."

At a minimum, McGee said Forest Service officials should withdraw from their "memorandum of understanding" with Stanley Energy, hire a new contractor and fund the EIS.

As for the EIS itself, McGee said the Bridger-Teton should focus its efforts on addressing some of the shortcomings of the current forest plan.

"In the past two decades, energy development in the region has skyrocketed, but that forest plan doesn't take into account the new development and its impacts on the forests, particularly with regard to air quality and water quality," she said. "Since the forest plan was prepared in 1990, new species have been listed under the Endangered Species Act, like the Canada lynx. They should also look at the socioeconomic impacts of having one dominant use in a region and its impacts to local outfitters and businesses."

Bridger-Teton officials announced the SEIS in late January and hope to complete the document by April 2009.

Legislation that would allow the buyout of leases in the Wyoming Range, originally introduced by the late Sen. Craig Thomas (R-Wyo.) and carried on by his successor John Barasso (R-Wyo.), remains stalled in the Senate committee on Energy and Natural Resources. The bill would protect more than 1.2 million acres of the range by prohibiting future oil and gas leasing, while allowing a buy-out process that enables current leaseholders to voluntarily sell their leases.

The Wyoming Outdoor Council, Wilderness Society, Greater Yellowstone Coalition and several other groups protested the first lease sale in the Wyoming Range in December 2005, arguing that the Bureau of Land Management had not done a thorough enough analysis of leasing in the area (Land Letter, Dec. 8, 2005).

In July 2006, the Interior Board of Land Appeals agreed with the environmental groups and issued a stay of oil and gas leases in the Wyoming Range. The board ruled the Bureau of Land Management failed to adequately consider possible effects on air quality and the Canada lynx as part of its National Environmental Policy Act analysis of the leases (Greenwire, July 12, 2006).

Stanley Energy officials could not be reached for comment by press time.

Gable is an independent energy and environmental writer in Woodland Park, Colo.

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