Matthew Brown of the Associated Press reports in the Washington Post online that US District Judge Donald Molloy approved a deal on Thursday, 03-18-10, that suspended 38,000 acres of oil and gas leases in Montana "so it can gauge how oil field activities contribute to climate change."According to Brown's article, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) will suspend 61 leases in Montana over 90 days in order that a new round of environmental reviews can be conducted. The reviews must be finished before the suspensions can be lifted.
The leases were originally sold in 2008, at which point the plaintiffs, the Montana Environmental Information Center, the Oil and Gas Accountability Project, and the Wild Earth Guardians, brought the suit. The environmentalists "argued the industry has allowed too much waste and uses inefficient technologies that could easily be updated." The plaintiffs in the case view this decision as a good '"first step, in the BLM addressing climate change in oil and gas development,'" stated plaintiff's attorney Erik Schlenker-Goodrich.
How the reviews will be conducted is being worked out as reviewing leases for climate change impacts "will be a first" for the BLM. BLM spokesman, Greg Albright said it is not yet been determined whether the BLM will permanently adopt climate change reviews as a standard part of environmental impact reviews. '"This is really early, so I don't know what the ramifications will be,' Albright said."
Brown reports that the industry defendants believe the reviews won't delay the leases too long "because they were acquired speculatively, meaning there's no guarantee of drilling." The industry wants the BLM to finish their review within six months so those who hold the leases can move on with their plans.
A similar case over 70,000 acres of federal land in New Mexico is also pending at this time.
To read the Brown article in the Washington Post online, click here.
To learn more about climate change laws and cases in the United States, visit the National Agricultural Law Center's Climate Change Reading Room by clicking here.
Posted: 03/22/10
