BISMARCK, N.D. – A judge has denied North Dakota’s request for an order forcing the federal government to hold oil lease sales.
The Bureau of Land Management is planning to hold such a sale in the first quarter of 2022 after canceling all sales last year. U.S. District Judge Daniel Traynor ruled against the state Friday in part because a U.S. Justice Department attorney has offered an assurance that the bureau plans to hold the sale imminently.
Traynor wrote in his order that he agreed with the federal government’s assessment that the state had made “a premature request.”
