ELR Citation: 51 ELR 20054
No(s). 19-3629 (RC) (D.D.C. Mar 30, 2021) (Contreras, J.)

A district court denied the National Park Service's (NPS') motion to dismiss a challenge to its issuance of a policy memorandum concerning the use of electric-assisted bicycles (e-bikes) in national parks. Environmental groups argued the memorandum amended existing NPS regulations on bicycle use by putting e-bikes under general bicycle regulations through the "false guide" of a policy change, and violated the APA by circumventing the Act's notice-and-comment procedures for amending existing regulations. The groups also argued the memorandum violated NEPA because NPS failed to prepare either an EA or EIS to assess the policy's environmental impacts. NPS moved to dismiss for mootness following the issuance of a final rule that superseded and replaced the memorandum. The court found that it could grant effective relief to the groups by invalidating the park e-bike designations that continued under the memorandum's authority, and that the validity of the initial NEPA determinations remained a live controversy because the memorandum was used to justify the ongoing lack of NEPA compliance in the final rule. It therefore denied NPS' motion to dismiss.