GHG lawsuit involving BLM oil and gas leases moves forward

A lawsuit challenging four Bureau of Land Management lease sales in Montana on climate change grounds will go forward after a federal judge last week rejected the agency's arguments that climate impacts should not be considered in leasing decisions. Two environmental groups -- WildEarth Guardians and Earthworks' Oil & Gas Accountability Project -- are challenging BLM's leasing of 40,000 acres of federal lands, saying the agency ignored a 2001 order from then-Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt requiring the agency to examine effects associated with climate. Specifically, the groups say BLM failed to consider releases of methane, a potent greenhouse gas. Although Babbitt's successor, Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne, modified the order during the waning days of the Bush administration, plaintiffs argued that the rule was still in effect when the four Montana leases targeted in the lawsuit were issued in 2008. BLM argued that the 2001 order could not be judicially reviewed or enforced in federal court. But last week, U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy in Montana rejected BLM's motion to dismiss the lawsuit, clearing the way for the lawsuit to proceed...WBR