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A federal judge in Montana canceled oil and gas leases on more than 470 square miles of public land in Montana and Wyoming because the Trump administration failed to protect the greater sage-grouse. Chief Judge Brian Morris ruled that 440 leases across the two states, as well as a 2018 instruction memorandum from the Bureau of Land Management, violated the 2015 sage-grouse plans.
Morris' ruling could have broader implications, potentially affecting more than a million acres of lease sales across five states, according to Mike Freeman, an attorney for the conservation groups that sued over the lease sales.
“The errors here occurred at the beginning of the oil and gas lease sale process, infecting everything that followed,” Judge Morris wrote.
Is BLM hitting the brakes?
Last week's sudden postponement of a scheduled oil and gas lease sale in New Mexico was just one of a string of missed deadlines at the Bureau of Land Management. Dino Grandoni with the Washington Post’s Energy 202 reports that BLM has yet to announce public comment periods for three other upcoming lease sales in Utah and Nevada—which is a legally-required step before leasing public land for drilling. The Trump administration hasn't explained the delay.
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The Interior Department’s chickens are coming home to roost. This court ruling reaffirms that the administration has continued to act in bad faith. A deal's a deal, and you can’t simply bulldoze the hard fought agreements built across the West to protect the Sage-Grouse."
