North-Central Montana Province

Geologic description.

News

October 7, 2016; Obama administration unilaterally pulls lease that oil company has had for 33 years; federal judge to rule on legality of Obama's action -- AP

• lease-holder Solenex LLC has held the lease for 33 years but has not drilled because of numerous bureaucratic delays with the US departments of Interior and Agriculture
• lease was blocked; lease-holder wants the lease re-instated; 6,200 acre energy lease; canceled by the Obama administration in March
• Obama administration wants federal judge to uphold its decision to cancel the lease
• the lease is near Glacier National Park and the Blackfeet Indian Reservation
• Obama says the 1982 lease was improperly issued by the government because the environmental impact study (AIS) did not consider effects of drilling on the tribes
• the lease is within a 165,000-acre deemed by the government to be a traditional cultural district of the Blackfoot tribes
• it is the site of the creation story for the Blackfoot tribes of southern Canada and the Blackfeet Nation of Montana
• it appears the "cultural district" was established after the lease was obtained, and was simply a pretext to prevent drilling