SUBLETTE COUNTY – The Wyoming Bureau of Land Management announced its record of decision on Aug. 27 for the Normally Pressured Lance Gas Development Project proposed by Jonah Energy.

The county, surrounding communities and the state have anticipated the NPL project as a needed boost to their economies.

“The NPL project highlights both BLM’s multiple use, sustained yield mission and the important role partnerships play in a project like this,” said BLM Wyoming State Director Mary Jo Rugwell in an Aug. 28 release.

Rugwell credited “dedicated BLM employees in both the Pinedale and Rock Springs field offices who did an outstanding job balancing energy development while conserving important resources like sagebrush, big game habitats and air quality for future generations.”

The ROD explains how the BLM’s “preferred” alternative will be implemented with the energy company’s proposal to drill up to 3,500 new wells during a 10-year period in the field, which adjoins the Jonah Infill and Pinedale Anticline project areas. It is described as protective of a broader range of resources than simply wildlife.

The ROD gives the project a green light with conditions of submitting “site-specific” applications for any drilling and related development on the BLM’s portion of the project area – about 141,000 acres or 96 percent.

The NPL will be divided into three development areas that can be worked on simultaneously; many wildlife supporters commenting on the draft final environmental impact statement asked the BLM to select another alternative that would hold seven phased development areas.

The NPL project area contains big-game wildlife migration corridors –including the Hoback to Red Desert mule deer route – as well as sage-grouse breeding, nesting and winter concentration areas. But it also contains historic trails and potential paleontological and cultural/ tribal resources.

Jonah Energy’s Aug. 28 statement said, “The plans for the NPL area were developed by Jonah Energy and the BLM in close consultation with groups such as the Wyoming Governor’s Sage Grouse Implementation Team, the Wyoming Outdoor Council, The Nature Conservancy and the National Audubon Society to minimize impacts to wildlife and the environment. “The BLM estimates that the economic impact of the NPL project, which calls for up to 3,500 wells, will potentially bring $1.1 billion in tax revenue and 700 jobs to Wyoming’s state economy.”

However, some conservation groups this shared concerns that greater sage-grouse and migrating pronghorn and mule deer could be displaced in the NPL.

Jonah Energy spokesman Paul Ulrich was in the field and working on responses to questions from the Roundup. BLM officials did not acknowledge questions sent before press time

For more, see the upcoming Sept. 2 Sublette Examiner.