Don’t drill here

A few major environmental groups have filed a formal protest against the U.S. Bureau of Land Management’s plan to lease 2,600 acres of environmentally sensitive land to be used for oil and gas development, according to a press release from the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD).

The CBD, Sierra Club and Los Padres ForestWatch expressed concerns over the BLM’s decision to lease land in Monterey and Fresno counties without first conducting an environmental review on how drilling could affect landscapes, watersheds and wildlife. Drilling likely would involve hydraulic fracturing (commonly known as “fracking”), a controversial drilling method that has been linked to more than 1,000 documented groundwater-contamination cases.

The environmental groups also criticized the BLM for refusing to consider means to control the leakage of the potent greenhouse gas methane into the environment over time.