A federal District Court in Erie has granted an injunction sought by oil and gas industries that prevents the U.S. Forest Service from delaying development of privately owned oil and gas reserves under the 513,000 acre Allegheny National Forest.

Tuesday's 53-page decision by U.S. District Judge Sean McLaughlin tosses out an April agreement by the Forest Service that settled three lawsuits brought by environmental groups and limited oil and gas drilling in the Allegheny National Forest to 588 wells this year while a study of drilling's cumulative environmental impacts on the forest is completed.

The settlement agreement delayed action on 440 new well applications, and the industry argued that delay would cost them millions of dollars. The judge agreed.

The Forest Service hasn't decided if it will appeal, Andrew Ames, a spokesman for the service in Washington, D.C., said yesterday. Kathy Mohney, a spokeswoman for the Allegheny National Forest, said the effect of the judge's decision remains to be seen. She said that drilling work has continued on the 588 wells allowed in the settlement agreement.

Oil and gas well drilling has been booming in recent years in the state's only national forest, located 100 miles northeast of Pittsburgh in Elk, Forest, McKean and Warren counties. More than 12,000 wells are operating in the forest, a number that includes 984 wells drilled last year and 1,300 drilled in 2007.

The federal government owns the surface land in the Allegheny National Forest but 93 percent of the underlying oil, gas and mineral rights are privately owned.

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