Judge scolds administration on lease

BILLINGS, Mont. — A federal judge accused the Obama administration Wednesday of trying to “run the clock out” on a pending decision on an oil and gas lease near Glacier National Park that’s been held up for several decades.

U.S. District Judge Richard Leon gave the Interior Department 24hours to act on the matter. The 6,200acre lease is in Montana’s Badger-Two Medicine area, considered sacred by the Blackfoot tribes of the U.S. and Canada.

The Interior Department said in November it intends to cancel the lease, but it has yet to follow through. Lease owner Solenex of Baton Rouge, La., wants to drill for natural gas on the site and says its 1982 lease remains valid.

The company sued in 2013 to challenge a longstanding suspension of the lease.

Leon has repeatedly expressed frustration in recent months over the government’s handling of the case.

On Wednesday, he accused Justice Department attorney Ruth Storey of acting “silly” when she suggested the latest delay was out of deference to the court, according to a transcript of a Wednesday hearing in federal court in Washington, D.C.

“It’s pretty clear what’s been going on at the government. They’re running the clock out,” Leon said. “They want to get through this administration. ... Obviously the time has come for a court, some federal court somewhere, to say enough’s enough.”

Leon, who was nominated to the federal bench by former President George W. Bush, is perhaps best knownfor challenging the government’s National Security Agency phone records collection program.

He rejected a request from Storey to give the governmentmore time to act.

Justice Department spokesman Wyn Hornbuckle declined comment after Wednesday’s hearing.