Page 13 - Flathead Beacon // 8.26.15

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Land Managers Propose Timeline to Decide
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Drilling on Badger-Two Medicine
Federal agencies consider canceling leases outright in court-ordered schedule
BY TRISTAN SCOTT OF THE BEACON
Public land managers have submit- ted a court-ordered schedule framing the steps they’ll take to either lift a sus- pension of oil and gas drilling on a prized and culturally sacred landscape adjacent to Glacier National Park or cancel the energy leases outright.
In setting the schedule, federal land managers for the first time are consider- ing the dissolution of energy leases in the Badger-Two Medicine area as an option to settle a dispute over whether they were granted illegally, as leaders of the Black- feet Nation contend. The Badger-Two Medicine is home to the Blackfeet cre- ation story and is at the center of a hard- fought legal battle, with the lease-holder calling for the drilling suspension to be lifted on one side and a vast coalition of tribes, conservation groups and Montana politicians urging permanent protection on the other.
The timeline to resolve the decades- old suspension of an energy lease in the Badger-Two Medicine was drafted after a federal judge ordered the U.S. Depart- ment of Justice, the Bureau of Land Man- agement and the U.S. Forest Service to draft a schedule for the agencies to com- plete their review.
The leases in contention are held by Sidney Longwell, of the Louisiana-based Solenex LLC, which has sued in an effort to lift the suspension and fast track drill- ing on the 6,200-acre oil and gas lease it acquired in 1982.
U.S. District Judge Richard Leon previously denied Solenex’s request to immediately lift the suspension, but he ordered the government to come up with a timeline to end the lengthy delay, which he decried as unreasonable.
Longwell’s attempt to explore the area for oil and gas has been stymied by law- suits from environmental groups, and, most recently, by a review of the impacts drilling would have on the area, which is designated a Blackfeet Traditional Cul- tural District, located in the Lewis and Clark National Forest.
Leases covering approximately 40,000 acres remain in the Badger-Two Medicine, and removing the leases is the only remedy, according to tribal lead- ers and attorneys representing the con- servation groups. The tribe argues the leases violate both the National Envi- ronmental Policy Act and the Endan- gered Species Act and were granted with neither tribal consultation nor a review of cultural resources.
The land managers’ two-year plan proposes possible futures that include allowing the company to drill and can- celing its leases.
The Badger-Two Medicine area near the Blackfeet Indian Reservation and Glacier National Park. TRISTAN SCOTT | FLATHEAD BEACON
Tim Preso, an EarthJustice attorney representing a coalition of environmen- tal groups, said he is pleased with the government’s proposed timeline in that it raises the cancellation of leases as a proposed remedy. Preso said numerous other energy leases granted at the same time as the Badger-Two Medicine leases have been found to violate federal law, including leases on the North Fork Flat- head River.
The Badger-Two Medicine is no differ- ent, he said.
“We and the Blackfeet tribe have for- mally requested that the government cancel the leases on the basis that they were illegal, and that they arose at the same time as other leases found to be illegal,” Preso said. “Until now the gov- ernment hadn’t said much in response to those overtures but now we see that they are formally going to consider the lease-cancellation option, so of course we are pleased to see that. We continue to maintain that the only acceptable out- come is cancellation of the leases.”
The schedule submitted by Depart- mentofJusticeattorneyRuthAnnSto- rey calls for BLM to decide by Nov. 30 to take one of two directions – decide to cancel the lease, a process that would take until March 30 to complete, or decide to continue the process of lifting the suspension.
William Perry Pendley, an attorney representing Solenex, said the sched- ule is disappointing and should seek to resolve the issue in weeks or months rather than years.
“It’s very discouraging to see the government’s response. This thing has been going on since 1983 and the federal
government, all they can see is months and even years of more delay,” Pendley said.
He said the breakdown in negoti- ations with the tribe was also disap- pointing, but that the Blackfeet leaders’ all-or-nothing style of compromise was counterproductive.
“The tribe does not want us to obey the law, does not want to mitigate or min- imize the impact on cultural resources, it simply just wants the lease to go away,” he said.
The review seeks to weigh industrial interests against the cultural values of the sacred lands and is standard when- ever companies seek to operate in a des- ignated “Traditional Cultural District” such as the Badger-Two Medicine.
The Blackfeet Nation was not party to the government’s Aug. 17 response, though tribal members said its outcome will determine much for the tribe’s future.
Dale Fenner, a local Blackfeet res- ident, noted that, “The government’s response affects us. Anything that hurts the Badger-Two Medicine threatens Blackfeet identity and is unacceptable to our people. As a young person in this community, I now call on all Blackfeet to get involved.”
The next step is for the judge to review the schedule submitted by the govern- ment. The judge can accept it as-is, request modifications, or reject it and issue a revised ruling. According to the order, once the judge approves the timetable, the government must adhere to it; failure to comply could lead to “a judicial order lift- ing the current suspension entirely.”
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AUGUST 26, 2015 // FLATHEADBEACON.COM
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