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The federal government is moving forward with oil and gas leasing on 6,277 acres of Bureau of Land Management property in Montana following a judicial order directing the Department of the Interior to resume lease sales on federal lands. The BLM Montana/Dakotas State Office is asking for public feedback on leases involving 14 parcels in Montana that had been considered for auction before President Joe Biden’s pause on new lease sales went into effect. The moratorium was initiated with a Jan. 27 executive order directing the Interior D...
The civil judgment, the second-highest ever awarded in Montana, highlights volatility and growing pains in the CBD market. Hemp, a crop that largely flew under the radar in Montana when it was planted under a pilot program three years ago, is now central to one of the largest civil awards in the state's history. A jury in Wolf Point last month awarded 25 eastern Montana farmers $65 million in compensatory and punitive damages, finding that a handful of Canadian and American businessmen had...
Eleven industry groups including the Montana Petroleum Association say the Biden administration broke the law by failing to hold sales for new oil and gas leases eight months after implementing an indefinite moratorium. Eleven industry trade groups including the Montana Petroleum Association and the American Petroleum Institute filed a lawsuit this week challenging the Biden administration’s moratorium on oil and natural gas leasing on federal lands. “Congress has mandated quarterly mineral lease sales, but the Department of Interior has fai...
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen are the lead plaintiffs on the complaint, which argues that Biden unlawfully changed energy policy set by Congress. Twenty-one attorneys general filed a lawsuit this week in an effort to reverse President Joe Biden’s revocation of the trans-border permit for the Keystone XL pipeline. The lawsuit is the latest in a series of moves by Montana’s elected officials aimed at reauthorizing the beleaguered project, which was designed to move 830,000 barrels of crude oil dai...
Both of Montana’s U.S. senators are working angles in Congress to overturn President Joe Biden’s decision to nix the Keystone XL pipeline. On Friday, Democrat Jon Tester introduced an amendment that would include reauthorization of the pipeline in the $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package the U.S. House passed last week. Senate deliberations on that package are expected to go well into Friday evening. Due to changes the package has undergone in recent days, the measure will likely require another round of approval from the U.S. House before it...
House Bill 314 would make Montana's utility regulation commission consider the community consequences of coal-fired closures. The Legislature is considering a measure that would direct the Public Service Commission to weigh the economic impacts of coal-fired plant closures in its regulatory decision-making. Proponents say it can help coal-dependent communities remain viable, while opponents say it has the potential to hurt businesses and ratepayers by bucking regulatory norms. House Bill 314 is...
