Judge halts oil rush on Montana's public lands

[G_j]

https://earthjustice.org/news/press/2020/news-rural-landowners-farmers-and-conservation-groups-celebrate-court-victory-halting-risky-oil-and-gas-giveaway?utm_source=P2A&utm_medium=SMS&utm_campaign=200501_Info_MontanaFracking&utm_term=Info&utm_content=TextMessageLink

RURAL LANDOWNERS, FARMERS, AND CONSERVATION GROUPS CELEBRATE COURT VICTORY HALTING RISKY OIL AND GAS GIVEAWAY OF 150,000 ACRES OF MONTANA PUBLIC LANDS

Victory: Federal judge rules BLM failed to consider risks to Montana’s environment and water supply before issuing 287 oil and gas leases

MAY 1, 2020
Great Falls, MT — Today, Montana landowners, farmers, and conservation groups won an important victory to protect local groundwater and the climate when a federal judge ruled that the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) failed to consider risks to Montana’s environment and water supply before issuing 287 oil and gas leases covering 145,063 acres in December 2017 and March 2018 lease sales. The court’s decision will protect Montanans, their livelihoods, clean water, public lands, and our climate by reversing the Bureau of Land Management’s recent approval of oil and gas leases across staggering swaths of Montana’s public lands.

BLM’s lease sale would have paved the way for the destructive fracking boom to spread onto 145,063 acres of Montana public lands. Rural landowners and conservation groups, including WildEarth Guardians and Montana Environmental Information Center, banded together to fight BLM’s lease sale because of the agency’s failure to take a hard look at the impacts of fracking on Montana’s water quality, water quantity and our climate. Earthjustice and the Western Environmental Law Center represented the parties in federal district court.

“We know from experience what drilling for oil can do to productive farmlands. When a pipeline leaked into the Yellowstone River and they had to truck the oil out of Elk Basin, we did not have a fruit crop that year. The dust from all the oil trucks on the road blanketed our fruit trees and rocked our farm’s finances. We could only imagine what this latest rushed lease sale was going to do to us,” said Bonnie Martinell, who together with her husband Jack, are generational Montana farmers who own and operate a chemical free produce and hay farm just north of Elk Basin oil field. “We’re incredibly grateful that the court sided with the longtime rural landowners, protecting the water in our wells and our community’s future.”

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[Delmette2.0]

1. Oh, that is good news.