Judge to settle oil leasing dispute in Montana

BILLINGS (AP) — A federal judge will decide if almost 80,000 acres of oil and gas leases in Montana should be canceled after environmentalists sued over climate change worries.

U.S. District Judge Sam Haddon took the case under advisement Friday after attorneys for the government and industry moved to have it dismissed.

Plaintiffs led by the Montana Environmental Information Center say the Bureau of Land Management should have forced companies to address greenhouse gas emissions as a condition of sale for 120 leases at sites scattered across the state.

BLM and industry representatives contend the amount of methane and other greenhouse gases released from oil and gas fields is minuscule on a global scale. That includes emissions from leaks in pipelines and other equipment, venting of excess gas and the operation of machinery.