A three-judge panel ruled last week that because a two-year permit the Bureau of Land Management issued to a Houston-based energy company expired last month, SUWA's lawsuit challenging the BLM's decision to allow the company to test for oil and gas reserves was rendered moot.

Veritas DGC received seismic testing authorization from the BLM in October 2002, with SUWA filing suit against Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton two months later. After a U.S. District Court hearing in August 2003, SUWA's complaint was denied, with the court ruling that the BLM's action in authorizing Veritas to test was valid. SUWA appealed to the 10th Circuit in October 2003.

Interior Department attorneys raised the issue of whether the suit was moot during a Sept. 29 hearing, arguing that Veritas had not renewed, and was not expected to renew, an agreement with the BLM that expired Oct. 4. The company had stated in a letter to the court that it had completed its work by the spring of 2003, and decided "not to conduct additional operations."

Though it agreed that the company's permit had expired, SUWA argued that its appeal was not moot because of the flawed review process, which it said could be repeated in future agreements between the agency and energy firms.

"The way these drill projects work is problematic because they work in such short timeframes," said SUWA attorney Steve Bloch. "These companies know when the [BLM] decisions are coming, so they can have people in the field and working as soon as they are made. That's what we've seen for almost three years now, and that's what's so troubling."

The 10th Circuit Court rejected SUWA's argument, ruling that the environmental group never requested an expedited hearing at either the district or appeals level. "Further, in our view," the opinion stated, there is no "reasonable expectation that the same complaining party . . . [will] be subjected to the action again."

Bloch disputed that aspect of the ruling.

"At the time we filed the appeal, the company was going full speed ahead," he said. "We did ask to expedite at the district court level."

jbaird@sltrib.com