Montana judge buries attempt to reassess oil leases on grouse habitat

Monique Merrill

(CN) — The Trump administration’s Bureau of Land Management failed to convince a judge to allow it to reassess six leasing decisions on imperiled sage grouse habitat Wednesday, paving a path forward for the consideration of six Montana and Wyoming lease sales now at issue in the complicated environmental case.

In 2018, a coalition of conservation groups led by the Montana Wilderness Federation and the Wilderness Society challenged Trump administration policies that removed protections for greater sage grouse. The bird species is native to the western U.S. and Canada and has been in decline for decades due to habitat loss.

In the seven years since the case was first filed, 10 appeals have been opened in the Ninth Circuit regarding various court decisions largely pertaining to the vacatur of certain lease sales in Wyoming and Montana. The most recent decision from the Ninth Circuit held that the Bureau of Land Management violated its own plans to protect sage grouse and found that the Montana federal court properly vacated a Wyoming lease sale.

The next phase consists of six Montana and Wyoming lease sales. The bureau asked U.S. District Judge Brian Morris for a voluntary remand, arguing that a recent change under the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” has changed how it must consider expressions of interest.

But the Barack Obama appointee wasn’t convinced.

“Federal defendants cannot rely on new or potential laws that would apply to future leasing decisions to demonstrate an intent to reconsider or review seriously their previous decision,” Morris wrote in the order released Wednesday.

Plus, the court is required to look at the regulations in place at the time of the challenged decision rather than changes that came after, such as President Donald Trump’s legislation from this summer. The judge noted the feds didn’t provide evidence that Congress intended for the act’s provisions to apply to past lease sale determinations.

“Federal defendants seem to request remand as means to provide a new rationale for reaffirming the prior leasing decisions,” Morris wrote.

The government argued that the court should allow it to reassess the leases as the facts of the case have changed significantly. The Bureau of Land Management insisted the potential environmental impact of the leases is minimal, pointing out how only nine leases among the 1,111 lease parcels sold have producing wells.

“The court will not grant remand on this fact alone,” Morris wrote. “Federal defendants remain free to present the fact that only a small number of the challenged leases have been developed in their response to plaintiffs’ motion for summary judgment and cross-motion for summary judgment.”

Morris added that a remand at this late stage would “unduly prejudice” the conservation groups.

The case has been active for over seven years and the Ninth Circuit has already resolved the issues pertinent to the next phase in the appeals of earlier decisions, streamlining the process.

“Remand would leave the phase three leases in effect without having considered the merits of plaintiffs’ claims,” Morris wrote.

The conservation groups submit that greater sage grouse populations have declined between 13% to 24% since 2013 across Wyoming and Montana and argue that oil and gas development at issue in phase three would cause further damage.

The Bureau of Land Management declined to comment, and the remaining parties did not respond to a request for comment before press time.