ELR Citation: 52 ELR 20032
No(s). CV-18-69-GF-BMM (D. Mont. Mar 11, 2022) (Morris, J.)

A district court granted in part environmental groups' motion for summary judgment in a challenge to BLM's issuance of a 2018 instruction memorandum on greater sage grouse conservation and and subsequent oil and gas lease sales in Nevada and Wyoming. Environmental groups argued the lease sales conflicted with the prioritization requirement established in BLM's 2015 resource management plans to conserve sage grouse habitat, in violation of FLPMA. The court found nothing in the administrative record suggesting that BLM considered the prioritization's purpose of guiding development away from sage grouse habitat for the lease sales, that the Bureau failed to address the proximity of leases to existing oil and gas development, and that it failed to analyze where the value of the species' habitat warranted deferring some of the leases. It vacated the lease sales, but stayed its order pending appeal of a ruling on an earlier phase of the suit concerning lease sales in Montana and Wyoming.