Contact: William Perry Pendley, 303/292-2021, Ext. 30

June 10, 2014 – DENVER, CO. A Louisiana man issued a federal oil and gas lease in 1982, but denied the right to explore his property since initial approval of his application for permit to drill (APD) in 1985 and who sued to demand the right to use his property today prevailed over an effort by opposition groups to intervene in his lawsuit. Sidney Longwell of Baton Rouge, whose company Solenex, LLC owns the Reagan era lease, sued Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell and other Interior Department and Department of Agriculture officials in federal district court in the District of Columbia. Mr. Longwell, who is represented by Mountain States Legal Foundation (MSLF), charges that the United States has unlawfully withheld and unreasonably delayed the action necessary to permit him to exercise the rights granted him under the lease. The 1982 oil and gas lease was issued by the Bureau of Land Management on 6,247 acres in the Lewis and Clark National Forest in Glacier County, Montana. A little over a decade was spent obtaining final approval to drill; however, for the next twenty years, federal officials suspended the lease and barred any and all drilling activity.

“We are thrilled the district court ruled these groups have no right to intervene in our client’s lawsuit,” said William Perry Pendley, MSLF president.

In June 1982, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) issued Mr. Longwell a 6,247 acre oil and gas lease on federal land in northwestern Montana. In 1983, Mr. Longwell assigned the lease to America Petrofina Company of Texas, which later became Fina Oil and Chemical Company. In October 1983, Fina submitted an application for permit to drill near Hall Creek, approximately 2 miles south of U.S. Highway 2 to evaluate the natural gas potential of that portion of the Overthrust Belt.

After extensive review pursuant to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), amidst appeals, and following a ruling by the Interior Board of Land Appeals (IBLM), in consultation with the U.S. Forest Service, the BLM approved the APD in 1985, 1987, 1991, and finally in January 1993.

In June 1993, the Secretary of the Interior suspended activity on the lease purportedly to permit Congress to act. In 1994 and 1995 the Secretary extended the suspension awaiting congressional action. Then, in 1996, the Secretary continued the suspension, purportedly to comply with the National Historic Preservation Act. In 1997, the Secretary extended that suspension and finally, in 1998, continued it indefinitely.

In 1999, FINA assigned its rights under the approved APD and lease back to Mr. Longwell. In July 2004, he assigned his rights to Solenex, which, in May 2013, asked that the suspension be lifted; the request was denied.

Mountain States Legal Foundation, founded in 1977, is a nonprofit, public-interest legal foundation dedicated to individual liberty, the right to own and use property, limited and ethical government, and the free enterprise system. Its offices are in suburban Denver, Colorado.