CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) – Environmental groups are appealing a judge’s decision to suspend new rules for oil and gas drilling on federal land across the U.S. amid a legal challenge to those rules.

The Sierra Club and others say the rules should be allowed to take effect to protect land and water from practices including hydraulic fracturing.

In September, U.S. District Judge Scott Skavdahl in Wyoming disagreed and blocked the rules from taking effect while the lawsuit contesting them moves ahead.

The environmental groups appealed Skavdahl’s decision Nov. 27 to the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The case itself remains before Skavdahl in Casper.

The plaintiffs are Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, North Dakota, the Ute Tribe and two petroleum industry groups. They say the rules would be too costly for industry and cause economic harm.