Environmental groups are suing the Trump administration over plans for the fracking industry in California, saying the Bureau of Land Management opened lands by adopting a federal analysis that did not adequately review "serious environmental and health impacts."
The Center for Biological Diversity, the Sierra Club, and others say in a lawsuit filed Tuesday the government agency opened public lands to "to harmful oil and gas leasing and development, in violation of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA)," reports The Hill.
The groups want to keep the agency from allowing oil and gas leasing, and argue an analysis adopted by its office in Bakersfield, California, "unlawfully minimizes the number of wells predicted to be fracked on new leases, and fails to adequately analyze the impacts of fracked wells on existing leases, leading to an underestimation of the impacts to air quality, climate, water quantity and quality, human health and safety, recreational uses, national park units, and other public lands, and seismicity."
BLM did not comment immediately on the lawsuit, but Michelle Ghafar, one of the attorneys on the case, said in a statement the agency has chosen the oil industry over public health and safety concerns.
Last year, the Trump administration said it would open up 725,000 acres in California for oil and gas lease sales, ending a five-year hiatus. That decision is also facing a challenge in the courts.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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