JACKSON - An energy company with lease rights to drill exploratory wells in the Hoback Rim area has asked the Forest Service to conduct a broader environmental review before permitting their exploration.

Plains Exploration and Petroleum Company of Houston sent a letter to Bridger-Teton National Forest Big Piney District Ranger Greg Clark asking not to approve a draft environmental impact statement, saying there are "significant" concerns for the potential impacts to the area.

Steven Rusch, vice president for environmental health, safety and government affairs for the company wrote in a June 11 letter. "Instead, PXP requests the Forest Service to take the unprecedented step to expand its current (National Environmental Policy Act) review to include an evaluation of impacts associated with development/production from the PXP leases in the area of the Eagle Unit."

Rusch wrote the scope NEPA review still needs to be determined, but "we expect that this process will entail analysis of various development alternatives that will include an expanded evaluation of impacts associated with production; we will not confine our review to the initial exploration wells."

PXP submitted a proposal to the Forest Service to explore three wells on 4.5 acres near the Hoback Ranches subdivision. Clark has said he has a legal obligation to allow the company to explore those wells. The Forest Service released a draft environmental impact statement earlier this year, eliciting more than 19,000 comments - most against the proposal to drill.

Clark was out of the office Tuesday and not available for comment.

Mark Winland, interim director for the Wyoming Wildlife Federation, applauded PXP's move "to be responsive to the outpouring of comments against the exploratory wells in the Hoback."

"Their letter, however, leaves their intentions quite unclear," Winland said. "It appears that they are willing to expand the analysis of the scope of the impacts beyond the extremely initial site-specific analysis presented in the (draft study), which is what we and many others asked for. The devil will be in the details of how far analysis gets expanded, and whether that expansion includes what conservationists and sportsmen asked for or will be used as a way to expand their drilling proposal."

In a statement Monday, Gov. Dave Freudenthal who was involved in talks with the company, expressed concern that drilling in the Wyoming Range is still a possibility.

"While I'm pleased that the company has responded to public comments expressing concern about drilling in this area, at this point, I'm not sure what Plains Exploration's next steps will be," he said. "I remain opposed to their efforts to develop in the Wyoming Range."

Much of the public expressed concern that drilling the wells, building four miles of roads or using helicopters in the environmentally-sensitive Wyoming Range, might lead to more drilling in the area.

Two years ago, Bridger-Teton officials decided 44,600 acres of the Wyoming Range would be on the table for leasing. Some of those leases have been stayed by a federal appeals board after individuals and groups appealed the lease sales, which are overseen by the Bureau of Land Management.

Freudenthal and the late U.S. Sen. Craig Thomas have previously made strong statements calling for the protection of the Wyoming Range. Just before his death, Thomas was working on legislation to prevent further leasing of the Wyoming Range, and was working with people to buy back or trade existing leases in the area.

PXP's letter said it had met with Freudenthal and the governor "explained his concerns with PXP's proposed project and its potential impacts and implications."

Those concerns, along with public worries, include the idea that the exploratory project might not be limited to existing wells, and that further exploration might encroach on the Wyoming Range, PXP said in its letter.

PXP said it had planned to do a separate environmental review prior to developing a field in the area.

The energy company also said the "scope and nature of PXP's Eagle Project is widely misunderstood; we believe PXP can provide more information to ameliorate misconceptions about the project."

It also said the company wishes to conduct an "evaluation of environmental impacts, including air quality, that is more expansive than NEPA requires at this stage of the project."

Winland said the best situation would be to indefinitely suspend the draft study until efforts at the federal level run their course.

Environmental reporter Whitney Royster can be reached at (307) 734-0260 or at royster@tribcsp.com.