A judge won’t lift the decades-long suspension of a Baton Rouge company’s oil and gas lease near Glacier National Park, but he ordered the U.S. government to fast-track its review.
Solenex LLC is seeking to drill on land held sacred by the Blackfoot tribes of Montana and Canada. The company’s 6,200-acre energy lease has been held up for decades while federal officials consider the potential impacts of drilling.
The Associated Press reports that U.S. District Judge Richard Leon, in his ruling today, was incredulous the lease had been suspended for more than 29 years. Leon says the government has unreasonably delayed its review. He ordered government officials to file a schedule within 21 days that lists the tasks that still need to be completed in the review and how long they will take.
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.
