Conservation Groups Move to Defend Federal Leasing Pause
This week Powder River Basin Resource Council joined a broad coalition of conservation and tribal groups filing motions to intervene to defend the Department of Interior’s pause on federal oil and gas leasing pending the agency’s comprehensive review of the program. With this action, the groups seek to defend the leasing pause against two lawsuits […]
Powder River Breaks Newsletter January – February 2021
January – February 2021, Volume 49, Number 1 In an effort to demonstrate widespread concern about air quality related to oil and gas development in Laramie County, Cheyenne Area Landowners Coalition (CALC), an affiliate of Powder River, teamed up with Earthworks’ Community Empowerment Project to film several leaking wells with state-of-the-art infrared cameras. The organizations […]
Westerners support reforming broken leasing system for federal coal, oil and gas
President Biden today signed several executive orders, including a pause on further leasing of oil and gas by the federal government, and a review of all existing leasing and permitting practices related to fossil fuel development on public lands. Federal mineral leasing programs have been repeatedly criticized by government watchdogs for wasting public resources. Additionally, […]
Powder River Breaks Newsletter November – December 2020
November – December 2020, Volume 48, Number 6 In November, over 125 Wyoming citizens filed comments with the Wyoming Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (WOGCC) urging a denial of Aethon Energy’s proposal to dispose of up to 30,000 barrels per day of polluted oil and gas wastewater into the Madison Aquifer Aethon must get approval […]
Powder River’s 2020 Annual Report
This is Powder River Basin Resource Council’s 2020 Annual Report. To read the full report, please download the PDF.
Powder River Breaks September – October 2020
September – October 2020, Volume 48, Number 5 They’re baaccck! That’s right, Aethon Energy is back before the Wyoming Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (WOGCC) trying again to get approval for their previously rejected proposal to inject 20,000 barrels per day of polluted oil and gas wastewater from the Moneta Divide field into the Madison […]
New Bill Tackles Unemployment & Abandoned Wells
WASHINGTON, D.C. – These days, skilled workers sit unemployed, while thousands of leaking, orphaned oil and gas wells litter the landscape of the West. An orphaned well is an unreclaimed well for which no owner or operator can be found, or where an owner or operator is unable to plug and reclaim a well. Orphaned […]
Experts to Discuss Oil & Gas Air Pollution and Public Health at CALC Annual Meeting
The impact of oil and gas air pollution on public health will be the topic of the Cheyenne Area Landowners Coalition’s (CALC) Annual Meeting on Thursday, Sept. 24 from 5:30 – 7:00 pm; the event is online and open to the public. The panel will discuss the increasing body of research about the impact oil […]
Powder River Breaks July – August 2020
July – August 2020, Volume 48, Number 4 In the summer of 2019, Governor Gordon, a couple of legislative leaders, and the state land office began discussions about the purchase of millions of acres of mineral rights and land owned by the financially troubled Occidental Petroleum (Oxy). The purchase entailed approximately 1 million acres of […]
Powder River Statement on Wyoming’s Failed Occidental Petroleum Land Bid
Powder River Basin Resource Council says Wyoming has been saved from a potentially serious financial blunder. Powder River Basin Resource Council expressed optimism that Wyoming’s bid for millions of acres of land and mineral rights has apparently failed. Occidental Petroleum (OXY) is negotiating with another bidder instead. “Luckily, Wyoming seems to have dodged a bullet, […]
