Irate judge gives feds 21 days to issue plan for leases
A federal judge has had enough in a longstanding delay on a Louisiana's oilman's attempt to explore the Badger-Two Medicine region for oil and gas.
On July 27, U.S. District Court Judge Richard Leon gave the U.S. Department of Interior 21 days to come up with a resolution on the decision whether to lift a lease given to the Solonex Corp. owned by Sidney Longwell near Hall Creek back in 1982.
The leases are just a few miles south of Glacier National Park near Marias Pass in some of the wildest country in the region.
Solonex was given a permit to drill a single exploratory well back in 1985 by the Bureau of Land Management, but it has been delayed ever since.
That brought the ire of the judge.
"Since the (drill permit) was first approved in 1985, the lease has been suspended for more than 29 years! No combination of excuses could possibly justify such ineptitude or recalcitrance for such an epic period of time," Leon wrote in his ruling.
Leon warned the Department if they didn't adhere to the 21-day schedule, he might lift the suspension of the lease himself.
The decision advances the efforts of Solenex to construct six miles of new road, a bridge across the Two Medicine River and a four-acre drill pad - all on public, roadless lands directly adjacent to Glacier National Park.
Environmental groups and the Blackfeet Tribe, acting as intervenors in the suit, promised to continue to make their case against drilling
Kendall Edmo, a member of the Blackfeet Nation who has become deeply involved in the Badger-Two Medicine area, views the recent ruling as a serious threat to both spiritual practices and critical natural resources.
"The Badger-Two Medicine area should be protected not only because it is culturally significant to the Blackfeet people, but because we as human beings deserve access to clean water," she said in reaction to the ruling. "Solenex is threatening the same ecosystem my ancestors belong to, including major headwaters that run into the Blackfeet Reservation."
Prior to the ruling, two local groups, the Blackfeet Headwaters Alliance and Glacier-Two Medicine Alliance, joined 10 conservation organizations supporting the Blackfeet Tribe's request for the cancellation of all oil and gas leases in the Badger-Two Medicine area.
The 165,588-acre area - encompassing lands within the Blackfeet Indian Reservation, the Lewis and Clark National Forest, and Flathead National Forest - was designated a Traditional Cultural District under the National Preservation Historic Act in recognition of its importance to the Blackfeet people. Biologically, this area is the part of the last remaining stronghold along the Front for genetically pure westslope cutthroat trout. The area also provides key winter and summer range for over 800 elk and represents a large block of crucial secure habitat for grizzly bears.
Environmental groups have a legal strategy in hand, claiming the leases are illegal in the first place, because they never underwent the necessary environmental review in. Leases in the Flathead River drainage have also been in limbo for decades for the same reason - the Forest Service never did an environmental analysis of them through the National Environmental Policy Act prior to issuing them.
"Today's ruling is not the last word on the fate of the Badger-Two Medicine region," said Earthjustice attorney Tim Preso, one of the intervenor defendants. "The remaining oil and gas leases in the Badger-Two Medicine were never validly issued in the first place. They should be cancelled in the interest of preserving one of our country's last great wild places and an irreplaceable spiritual home for the Blackfeet Nation."