ELR Citation: 51 ELR 20083
No(s). 20-2195 (1st Cir. May 13, 2021)

The First Circuit affirmed a district court's denial of a preliminary injunction in a challenge to the Army Corps of Engineers' decision to authorize construction of a segment of an electric transmission line project in Maine. Environmental groups argued the Corps' EA and FONSI violated NEPA because the scope of the EA was too narrow, the agency failed to account for baseline environmental conditions, it underestimated the intensity of environmental impacts and should have conducted an EIS, and it failed to provide adequate opportunity for notice and comment. The district court held that the Corps gave each of its regulatory factors and intensity factors "due consideration and reasonably exercised judgment on the appropriate application of the same," and denied the groups' motion for preliminary injunction. The appellate court found that the Corps applied each of its regulatory factors with a reasoned discussion before reaching its decision, that it assessed baseline environmental conditions in its EA both in a stand-alone section and in discussing the environmental impacts, that the groups failed to demonstrate the Corps' decision to issue a FONSI instead of proceeding to an EIS was arbitrary or capricious, and that the agency provided public notice and held a public hearing as part of its EA review process. It therefore affirmed denial of the groups' preliminary injunction.