Save Strawberry Canyon v. U.S. Department of Energy
A district court held that DOE complied with NEPA when it determined that the construction of a "supercomputer" project on a college campus would have no significant environmental impact and did not require an EIS. The EA took a hard look at direct and indirect greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, adequa...
Rock Creek Alliance v. U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service
The Ninth Circuit held that the FWS' determination that a proposed mining project in northwest Montana would result in "no adverse modification" to critical bull trout habitat and would result in "no jeopardy" to the local grizzly bear population was not arbitrary, capricious, or in violation of the...
Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership v. Salazar
The D.C. Circuit upheld BLM’s decision to allow additional natural gas drilling in the Pinedale Anticline Project Area of western Wyoming. In 2008, the BLM adopted a record of decision (ROD) that, among other things, authorized the development of more natural gas wells than a previous ROD had sanc...
Ark Initiative v. United States Forest Service
The Tenth Circuit affirmed a lower court decision dismissing a lawsuit challenging the Forest Service's approval of a ski area improvement project near Aspen, Colorado. A conservation group alleged that the Forest Service violated NEPA by approving the project without examining certain cumulative ef...
WildEarth Guardians v. United States Forest Service
A district court upheld the U.S. Forest Service's environmental review of a coal mine expansion project in the Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre, and Gunnison National Forests. An environmental group argued that the final EIS failed to adequately consider methane capture and flaring as reasonable alternatives...
Dow Agrosciences LLC v. National Marine Fisheries Service
A district court upheld a NMFS biological opinion (BiOp) concluding that EPA's registration decisions under FIFRA for three insecticides—chlorpyrifos, diazinon and malathion—were likely to jeopardize the continued existence of 27 protected species of salmon and steelhead fish and would destroy o...