ELR Citation: 52 ELR 20108
No(s). 13-993 (RJL) (D.D.C. Sep 9, 2022) (Leon, J.)

A district court granted summary judgment for an oil and gas company in a decades-long suit concerning the company's oil lease on land sacred to the Blackfeet Nation in Lewis and Clark National Forest. On the latest remand from the appellate court, the company challenged the Secretary of DOI's 2016 decision to cancel its lease, first issued in 1982, and to disapprove its application for a permit to drill (APD). The court found the Secretary only has power to administratively cancel improperly issued leases, that this lease was not improperly issued because it did not violate NEPA or the National Historic Preservation Act, and that even if the lease were voidable at issuance, DOI subsequently ratified it and thus waived any right to rescind. It further found that the Secretary's withdrawal of the previously approved APD was arbitrary and capricious because she considered improper factors, failed to consider an important aspect of the problem, and offered an explanation that ran counter to the record. The court vacated the Secretary's decision, and remanded to the Secretary to reinstate the lease and previously approved APD.