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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Gas drilling lease delay a ‘nightmare,’ judge says

Matthew Brown Associated Press

BILLINGS – A federal judge is pressing U.S. officials to explain why it’s taken three decades to decide on a proposal to drill for natural gas just outside Glacier National Park in an area considered sacred by some Indian tribes.

A frustrated U.S. District Judge Richard Leon called the delay a “nightmare” during a recent court hearing. He ordered the Interior and Agriculture departments to report to him with any other example of where they have “dragged their feet.”

“This is no way to run a government,” Leon told government attorney Ruth Ann Storey, according to a transcript of the June 10 hearing in Washington, D.C.

At issue in the case is a 6,200-acre energy lease in northwest Montana’s Badger-Two Medicine area south of Glacier. Owned by Solenex LLC of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, the lease has been suspended since the 1990s.

Solenex sued in 2013 to overturn the suspension and wants to begin drilling for gas this summer. It’s represented by the Mountain States Legal Foundation, a conservative Colorado law firm that handles property rights cases and has numerous representatives of the oil and gas industry on its board of directors.

U.S. Justice Department spokesman Wyn Hornbuckle said Wednesday the government will submit a response to the judge’s concerns next week.

The Badger-Two Medicine area is home of the creation story of four Blackfoot tribes in Canada and Montana and the Sun Dance that is central to their religion. The land is part of the Lewis and Clark National Forest, but it is not on Montana’s Blackfeet Reservation.

Dozens of oil and gas leases were sold in the area, but most have been retired or surrendered. Only 18 suspended leases remain, including Solenex’s.

Blackfoot leaders have asked Interior Secretary Sally Jewell to cancel the leases.

The Interior Department issued the energy lease to Solenex in 1982, and the Forest Service in 1996 asked for it to be suspended so the agency could perform a historic preservation survey. That was completed in 2012, but there’s been no final decision on whether the lease should remain in place.