The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) over the weekend imposed an “indefinite” moratorium on an environmental review of a potential natural gas drilling site on the Rocky Mountain Front in Montana in response to stiff local opposition, and it plans to re-direct federal funds that were allotted for review of that project to another drilling prospect outside of the Front area where there is “more drilling [activity] and less controversy,” said a spokesman for BLM’s Montana State Office.

The action affects one of 85 BLM oil and natural gas leases along Montana’s Rocky Mountain Front, of which only five have the potential to drill, said BLM’s Don Smurthwaite. The other leases are either under a court order or a federal administrative order not to drill.

Placing a hold on the environmental impact statement (EIS) will allow the BLM and other parties, including leaseholder Startech Energy of Calgary, to explore a number of alternatives to drilling on Montana’s Rocky Mountain Front, such as buying out the company’s leases or exchanging them for leases elsewhere, Smurthwaite said.

Local residents are “very strong in their support of no more exploration” in the Blackleaf area of the Rocky Mountain Front, which is located about 75 miles west of Great Falls, MT, he noted.

The BLM plans to redirect the $1.5 million, which was allocated for the EIS of the Startech Energy’s Blackleaf area project, to the West Hiline project in North Central Montana, where there are approximately 850 leases and less local controversy, Smurthwaite said. This contrasts with three wells that Startech Energy would potentially drill. By doing this, the BLM “will make better use of taxpayer dollars,” he noted.

The West Hiline project is situated outside of the Rocky Mountain Front region, which extends about 150 miles from the Canadian border to just north of Helena, MT, and is home to grizzly bears, wolves, lynx and eagles.

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