ELR Citation: 53 ELR 20054
No(s). 21-71170 (9th Cir. Mar 29, 2023)

The Ninth Circuit, 2-1, granted in part and denied in part a city's petition for review of FAA's issuance of an EIS and record of decision allowing a Los Angeles airport to begin construction on a replacement terminal. The city challenged FAA's compliance with NEPA's requirement that an EIS include a "detailed statement" of alternatives and the agency's analysis of construction-related impacts. The court held the city failed to identify any reasonable alternative that FAA should have studied given the agency’s analysis of relevant technical and economic constraints; but that FAA failed to take a sufficiently hard look at the construction's noise impacts because its analysis rested on an unsupported and irrational assumption that construction equipment would not be operated simultaneously. It remanded to FAA to address the deficiency in its construction noise analysis and resulting deficiencies in its cumulative and environmental impacts analyses.