A plea to Secretary Zinke: appeal the Badger Two Med decision

We respectfully request that Secretary Ryan Zinke and the Department of the Interior protect Montana’s Badger-Two Medicine landscape from oil and gas development. We urge him to appeal the recent reinstatement of two canceled and illegal oil leases in “the Badger”.

On Monday, Sept. 24, broad-based efforts to protect this priceless area were dealt a setback by Washington, D.C. District Judge Richard Leon. He restored the leases and opined that too much time passed between their purchase and their cancellation.

The original leasing dates from the early 1980s, when countless oil leases were quickly created and sold, blanketing the Rocky Mountain Front and western National Forest lands with a patchwork of would-be oilfields. Much of that original leasing, including in Badger-Two Medicine country, was done improperly, with only perfunctory and essentially-reusable “cookie-cutter” Environmental Assessments, instead of the required site-specific Environmental Impact Statements, and also without mandated consultation with the Blackfeet Tribe. The federal government maintained at the time that the leasing action was simply clerical, and did not constitute an on-the-ground action that significantly impacted the environment.

Montana conservation and hunting advocates promptly sued, focusing on an area farther south on the Rocky Mountain Front, (Bob Marshall Alliance v. James Watt), and another to the west in the Flathead National Forest, (Conner v. Burford). Plaintiffs argued that leasing requires site-specific Environmental Impact Statements, because leasing leads to major and site-specific environmental damage. That is, anyone buying an oil lease would be permitted to develop that lease. Judges in both cases ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, voiding the oil leases and directing the government to start over with site-specific EIS processes.

That “start over” never happened. And with those courtroom decisions, the imminent threat from oil development on pristine public lands subsided. In the wild Badger-Two Medicine Hall Creek drainage, plans to drill were canceled at the 11th hour.

That Hall Creek lease was suspended, (though not voided), and conservationists were lulled into a false sense of security. But the long-term threat remained, and in 2013, 30 years after the illegal “cookie-cutter” leasing, that threat reared its head in a lawsuit by Solonex LLC, a company owned by Louisiana oilman Sydney Longwell.

Longwell maintained that his old lease constituted a property right, and that it was his right to develop that property. He called it unfair for the government to block lease development. Judge Leon agreed and told the government to provide a quick timeline for Solonex to drill.

Ironically, Mr. Longwell proved the old conservationists right. As we argued 30 years ago, the selling of an oil lease did imply the consequence of drilling, with all the environmental and wildlife impacts that oil and gas exploration bring. The need for a site-specific EIS is again demonstrated by Mr. Longwell’s assertions, and the old leasing without that EIS is, and was, illegal.

After considerable deliberation, Secretary of Interior Sally Jewel agreed, canceling all remaining Badger-Two Medleases and affirming that they were illegal to begin with.

In 2017 Mr. Longwell, joined by Texas oilman W.A Moncrief, Jr, sued again, claiming the government didn’t have the right to cancel their leases. Last month, when Judge Leon issued his opinion, he ruled in favor of Longwell and Moncrief without addressing the legality of the leases. He argued that lease cancellation was “capricious and reckless” because of the time involved, and put an unfair burden on the lease-holders.

It’s worth clarifying what was going on during the years of lease suspension. While Solonex waited to drill in Hall Creek, the conservation community and the Blackfeet Nation never stopped in their efforts to protect “The Badger.” Over 30 years they kept working to translate a Montana groundswell of support into lasting protection for this treasured wildland. And much has happened: most leaseholders sold, traded or voluntarily surrendered their old leases; Congress declared “the Badger” off-limits for future energy leasing; the Forest Service banned damaging motorized travel on the landscape; the Badger-Two Medicine was recognized under the National Historic Preservation Act as a Traditional Cultural District sacred to the Blackfeet; and its importance to the greater Crown of the Continent Ecosystem was confirmed.

Taken on its own, “the Badger” is a beautiful wildland with crucial wildlife habitat, as well as a living cultural landscape. Recognizing its keystone connection with the adjoining Bob Marshall and Great Bear Wilderness Areas, Glacier National Park, and the Blackfeet Indian Reservation, it’s clear that the Badger-Two Medicine must never be drilled.

While Judge Leon’s opinion represents a setback, this issue is not settled. We now urge Secretary Zinke and the Department of Interior to appeal Judge Leon’s decision, to remedy past mistakes by canceling these illegal leases, and to protect “the Badger” for perpetuity.

— Kendall Flint and Lou Bruno, president and president-elect, Glacier-Two Medicine Alliance