Greens See Montana Ruling as Template for Oil Lease Challenges

Environmental groups challenging federal oil and gas lease sales are expecting a court ruling that vacated 287 Montana leases to serve as a model for future challenges and embolden other judges to cancel federal oil leases.

The Montana court on May 1 took the rare step of vacating oil and gas leases issued by the Trump administration because the Bureau of Land Management failed to analyze the leases’ environmental impacts.

The BLM didn’t take a hard look at the cumulative impacts leasing would have on groundwater and climate change as required by the National Environmental Policy Act, Chief Judge Brian ...