BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — U.S. government attorneys are asking a judge in Montana to reverse the cancellation of a permitting program used to approve oil and gas pipelines and other utility work through wetlands and streams across the nation. The attorneys said Monday that the ruling would hamper thousands of construction projects overseen by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Judge Brian Morris ruled that the permitting program was reauthorized in 2017 without sufficient consideration of its potential environmental harm. Environmentalists say it allows projects to skirt water protection laws and ignores the cumulative harm caused by thousands of stream and wetlands crossings.
