ELR Citation: 51 ELR 20117
No(s). 3:20CV00045 (W.D. Va. Jun 21, 2021) (Jones, J.)

A district court dismissed a challenge to CEQ's adoption of revised regulations implementing NEPA following an allegedly defective notice-and-comment process. Conservation groups argued the revised regulations harmed them or will harm them by making it more difficult and likely more expensive for them to submit comments to other agencies during future NEPA reviews; by resulting in them receiving less information from future reviews and diverting resources to obtain from other sources information that previously would have come to light during the NEPA process; and by leading agencies to make uninformed decisions that harm the environment and go against the groups' missions and the recreational, aesthetic, and other interests of their members. CEQ moved for dismissal, arguing the groups' claims were unripe and that they lacked standing. The court found the groups' claims were unripe because the regulations did not directly regulate the groups and their potential applications and outcomes of the regulations were too attenuated and speculative to allow for a full understanding and consideration of how they might impact the groups. It further found the groups lacked standing because they failed to establish that the regulations caused or imminently would case them any concrete injury. It therefore dismissed the suit without prejudice.