A Baton Rouge company seeking to drill for natural gas on Montana land held sacred by some Native Americans is objecting to a 75-day review period sought by a federal panel considering the proposal.
Solenex LLC had wanted to begin drilling this summer on its 6,200-acre federal energy lease in the Badger-Two Medicine area next to Glacier National Park. The Associated Press reports that timetable appears increasingly unlikely. The Advisory Council on Historic Preservation says it needs until Sept. 21 to issue its recommendations on whether drilling would degrade the area’s significance to the Blackfoot tribes of Canada and Montana.
Solenex is represented by the Mountain States Legal Foundation. Mountain States President William Perry Pendley says there is no reason for further delay in a project that’s been held up for decades.
A federal judge delivered a win for the company last month by pressing U.S. officials to explain why it has taken three decades to decide on its proposal to drill for natural gas in an area considered sacred by some Native American tribes in Montana and Canada.
U.S. District Judge Richard Leon called the delay “troubling” and a “nightmare” during the court hearing. He ordered the Interior and Agriculture departments to report back to him with any other example of where they have “dragged their feet” for so long.
At issue in the case is a 6,200-acre energy lease in northwest Montana’s Badger-Two Medicine National Forest, immediately south of Glacier. The lease has been suspended since the 1990s.
Solenex, represented by the conservative Mountain States Legal Foundation of Colorado, sued in 2013 to overturn the suspension.
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 of the site. That was completed in 2012, but no final decision has been made on whether the lease should remain in place.
