U.S. District Judge’s Decision Is Victory For Solenex

On Monday, U.S. District Court Judge Richard J. Leon rendered a decision in the case of Solenex LLC v. Sally Jewell et al. The case was filed in 2013 after almost three decades of delay imposed by federal agencies upon Solenex as the company has sought to drill an exploratory natural gas well on federal land near East Glacier, Montana. The ruling comes after oral arguments before Judge Leon last month. Solenex was represented by Steve Lechner of Mountain States Legal Foundation; the U.S. Forest service, the lead federal agency in the case, was represented by U.S. Department of Justice attorney Ruth Ann Storey. Solenex had filed for a summary judgment alleging that the defendants - the Forest Service and other agencies - had unreasonably delayed action under the Administrative Procedure Act. The Department of Justice (DOJ) argued in a cross-motion that the delay was legal. When the court ordered the DOJ to offer other examples of such lengthy delays, the DOJ lawyer was unable to cite one. The judge denied the defendants’ motion in total, and granted Solenex’s motion in part. In the scathing six page order Judge Leon said that factual history of this case is “long, detailed and tortuous.” The judge wrote, “No combination of excuses could possibly justify such ineptitude or recalcitrance for such an epic period of time.”  In his decision, Judge Leon said that he found that ordering the defendants to “submit, and to stick to, an accelerated and fixed schedule is an appropriate remedy,” rather than ordering the defendants to lift the suspension directly. Solenex had asked the court to lift the suspension in their motion. Judge Leon denied that portion of the plaintiff’s motion...more