Labyrinth Canyon in southeastern Utah is renowned for its majestic red rock cliffs carved by the Green River — so much so that Congress decided the area merited a wilderness designation in 2019.
But just weeks before that designation took effect, the Bureau of Land Management leased land within the soon-to-be Labyrinth Canyon Wilderness Area for a helium drilling project. Though wilderness designations bar new development, preexisting leases are grandfathered in.
Environmentalists sued the BLM, arguing that the agency rushed through the leasing process and environmental review to allow drilling on the land. Under President Joe Biden, the BLM agreed to review that lease and 76 others issued by the Trump administration in Emery County.
Now the agency has upheld most of its previous decisions by reaffirming 51 oil and gas leases, including the helium well.
“This decision doubles down on one of the most controversial oil and gas leases issued during the Trump era,” said Landon Newell, a staff attorney for the environmental nonprofit Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance.
“It’s baffling to see the Biden administration give its blessing to a leasing decision so rushed and poorly conducted that it garnered national media attention and a groundswell of opposition,” he continued.
The area has historically not been productive for oil and gas development. There have been 79 wells drilled in the area, according to the BLM, and most of them were dry.
“Due to the extreme exploratory nature and past unsuccessful attempts,” the agency’s environmental assessment for this decision says, “it is anticipated that all wells drilled have a high probability of being a dry hole.”
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