ELR Citation: 51 ELR 20151
No(s). 2:19-cv-1822-SI (D. Or. Aug 4, 2021) (Simon, J.)

A district court denied nonprofit groups' motion for summary judgment in a challenge to BLM's decision authorizing a power company to construct a portion of an electrical transmission line across roughly 100 miles of federal land. The groups argued BLM violated NEPA by failing to supplement the final EIS to account for significant, new information about the decline of greater sage-grouse, the feasibility and cost of burying a section of the line, and how the company was seeking approval from state authorities for an alternate route that had not been disclosed in the draft EIS. The court found that the new information about the declining population of sage-grouse was not significantly new or seriously different from what was discussed in the final EIS, that the types of sources the groups submitted to show that underground transmission lines were feasible and not as expensive as BLM believed were not specific, persuasive types of sources that would trigger a supplemental EIS, and that the company's request for the alternate route was not significant, new information. It denied summary judgment for the groups and granted it for BLM.