The Montana judge who threw out more than 1.5 million acres of Wyoming oil and gas leases in June over sage-grouse habitat concerns has declined to let the Trump administration and the state take a newer environmental challenge to a Wyoming judge instead. The BLM asked Morris in a hearing last month to send the whole case to Wyoming. The Wyoming Attorney General’s office also argued that Montana wasn’t the proper venue for decisions pertaining to the Cowboy State’s oil and gas leasing. He acknowledged the state’s keen interest in the oil and gas economy, and its efforts to conserve sage-grouse. Morris’ June 12 order in an environmental groups’ 2018 case had blocked the oil and gas leases, sold under the Trump administration, due to sage-grouse habitat concerns.