ELR Citation: ELR 20208
No(s). 08-35180 (9th Cir. Aug 27, 2009)

The Ninth Circuit affirmed a lower court decision dismissing an Alaskan community's lawsuit against the Minerals Management Service (MMS) challenging its decision not to prepare a supplemental EIS for a proposed oil and gas lease sale on a tract of the outer continental shelf in the Beaufort Sea. MMS satisfied its duties under NEPA by taking the requisite "hard look" at new information concerning the impact of rising oil prices on the activities related to the lease sale and issuing a finding of no new significance. The agency did not act arbitrarily or capriciously in determining no supplemental EIS was required to address new information about the impact of seismic activity on Inupiat subsistence activities. Nor did MMS act arbitrarily or capriciously in determining that the risks posed to polar bears by the cumulative effects of global warming could be mitigated.