ELR Citation: ELR 20118
No(s). 05-5663 (6th Cir. Jun 29, 2006)

The court upholds an Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSM) permit allowing a coal company to mine roughly 1,100 acres in the Cumberland River watershed of northeastern Tennessee. An environmental group argues that the environmental assessment is deficient in failing to consider sufficient alternatives and that the agency acted arbitrarily and capriciously in issuing a finding of no significant impact. The extensive record compiled by the OSM, the many modifications made to the mining application by the coal company in response to concerns raised by the OSM, and the minimal long-term effects of the mining proposal on the environment all convinced the lower court that the OSM did not abuse its discretion. And because the administrative record shows that the OSM did, in effect, consider other options to the coal company's license request, and because the group failed to identify any concrete alternatives that the OSM should have considered (but did not), the court affirms.