Wyoming Fights to Revive $17.85 Billion Natural Gas Project Blocked by Federal Panel

Gov. Mark Gordon announced Monday that Wyoming is petitioning a federal board to reverse its decision halting a massive natural gas expansion in the Jonah Field, a project he called “a direct assault on Wyoming’s economy.” The move comes as Interior Secretary Doug Burgum has temporarily suspended the ruling pending review.

The Normally Pressured Lance project, proposed by Jonah Energy, would add 3,500 wells across 141,000 acres in Sublette County and extract an estimated 5.25 trillion cubic feet of natural gas over its lifetime. The $17.85 billion development had received Bureau of Land Management approval in 2018 after nearly a decade of environmental review under the National Environmental Policy Act.

But on Jan. 15, a two-judge panel of the Interior Board of Land Appeals abruptly revoked that approval, blindsiding both the company and state officials. The judges—Clifford Stevens and David Gunter, both Biden appointees—did not remand the project for fixes but killed it outright.

“We were blindsided by the decision, and every single individual we have talked about it with said they were blindsided, too,” said Paul Ulrich, Jonah Energy’s vice president.

The state’s petition, filed by the Attorney General’s Office, argues the IBLA overstepped its authority and interfered with Wyoming’s right to manage its own air quality regulations. The Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality had been deeply involved in the project’s approval process.

Gordon pointed to the economic stakes: an estimated $2 billion in severance taxes and $611 million in sales tax revenue over the project’s life, plus more than 900 jobs. For Sublette County, where over 90% of tax revenue comes from minerals and industry, the impact would be devastating.

“The county was projected to earn $1 billion from local gross products tax over the life of the project,” the petition states. Sublette County Commission Chairman Lynn Bernard called the ruling “devastating” and praised Jonah Energy as “a great neighbor and asset for us for a long time.”

Ulrich said the company’s focus now is on the motion to reconsider. “Instead of what they did, they could have sent it back to fix whatever they saw as a problem. To revoke the entire decision—that is almost unheard of.”

Burgum’s decision to “assume jurisdiction” and stay the IBLA ruling pending review offers a potential path forward. Ulrich praised Gordon and the Attorney General’s Office for “fighting for what’s right.”

Without the BLM’s record of decision, Ulrich said, “We have 140,000 acres with valid, existing rights we cannot plan to develop.”