Atlantic Coast Pipeline, LLC v. Nelson Co. Board of Supervisors
A district court granted a pipeline company's motion for partial summary judgment in a lawsuit concerning a Virginia county board's denial of the company's request to traverse floodplains to construct an interstate natural gas pipeline. The company argued that it was not obligated to comply with the...
Friends of Cedar Mesa v. U.S. Dep't of the Interior
A district court dismissed a lawsuit concerning BLM's March and December 2018 oil and gas lease sales in southeastern Utah. Environmental groups argued the sales were arbitrary and capricious because BLM failed to conduct proper environmental and historical analyses and failed to provide appropriate...
350 Montana v. Bernhardt
A district court vacated an EA prepared by OSM for a coal mine expansion in south-central Montana. Environmental groups argued that OSM violated NEPA by failing to adequately consider the risk of train derailments from the increased rail traffic that would result. The court found that OSM should hav...
Southeast Alaska Conservation Council v. United States Forest Service
A district court held that the Forest Service violated NEPA, the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA), and the National Forest Management Act (NFMA) when it authorized timber harvesting in the Tongass National Forest. Environmental groups argued the EIS, which included a conditio...
High Country Conservation Advocates v. United States Forest Service
The Tenth Circuit held that the Forest Service's decision to eliminate an alternative from its study of an exception to the Colorado Roadless Rule that allowed coal mining on previously protected national forest land near the North Fork of the Gunnison River was arbitrary and capricious. Environment...
King and Gardiner Farms, LLC v. Kern, County of
In a partially published opinion, a state appellate court set aside Kern County's approval of an ordinance amendment proposed by oil and gas industry groups to streamline the permitting process for new oil and gas wells. Environmental groups, community groups, and a local farm argued that the enviro...
South Carolina Coastal Conservation League v. United States Army Corps of Engineers
A district court granted in part and denied in part motions to compel discovery in a challenge to the Federal Highway Administration's (FHwA's), U.S. Army Corps of Engineers', and EPA's approval of permits for construction of a new interstate highway from North Carolina to Myrtle Beach. An environme...
Western Watersheds Project v. Zinke
A district court set aside BLM's 2018 instruction memorandum that supplied changed instructions to the agency's offices about how to handle oil and gas lease sales on federal lands within greater sage-grouse management area boundaries. Environmental groups argued the memorandum revised previously ex...
NEPA's Promise: A Future in Which We All Thrive
NEPA is not about my agenda or your agenda. It is about solutions that work for all of us. This Comment offers a litmus test. The first section explains the promise NEPA makes to each of us, describing the integration, information, and inclusion that NEPA brought to our federal statutory framework in a way not previously seen and describing how NEPA enhances our democracy by holding the government accountable to the people it serves—by giving the public a right to information, as well as the right to provide information.