The Trump administration suffered a major setback in its efforts to open more public lands to oil and gas drilling.
"A federal judge on Friday canceled nearly 300 oil and gas leases in Montana because government officials failed to properly study the risks of all that drilling to the environment and water supply," the Associated Press reported Friday.
The ruling impacts 287 leases covering approximately 227 square miles.
U.S. District Judge Brian Morris blasted the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in his decision.
"The Court does not fault BLM for providing a faulty analysis of cumulative impacts or impacts to groundwater, it largely faults BLM for failing to provide any analysis," Morris wrote.
Morris also mocked BLM's lawyers for responding to the lawsuit with irrelevant details.
"A weatherman proves unhelpful if he says 'it's going to be windy tomorrow' when asked if it will rain," Morris explained. "BLM proves just as unresponsive here."