The D.C. Circuit upheld FERC's approval of a natural gas pipeline that would run from northern Pennsylvania to Alabama. Environmental groups and landowners argued that FERC violated NEPA by failing to factor downstream greenhouse gas emissions into its evaluation of the project's environmental impac...
A state appellate court reversed a judgment upholding the Colorado Mined Land Reclamation Board's order granting a uranium mining company's request for approval of a second period of temporary cessation. Environmental groups argued the lower court erred in affirming the Board's order because the ord...
A district court vacated the the U.S. Forest Service's approval of an open-pit copper mining operation in the Coronado National Forest that included the dumping of approximately 1.9 billion tons of mine waste across over 2,000 acres of the forest. Environmental groups and tribes argued the Service m...
In Federal Lands and Fossil Fuels: Maximizing Social Welfare in Federal Energy Leasing, Prof. Jayni Foley Hein assesses inefficiencies in the federal fossil fuel leasing program that lead to the over-extraction of fossil fuels at great societal cost. In recognition of the U.S. Department of the Interior’s (DOI's) role in stewarding federal lands for the long-term benefit of the American people, Hein proposes that DOI should adopt a policy of seeking to maximize social welfare or “net public benefits” in its leasing decisions.
The externality costs of fossil fuel production—including pollution costs—are not accounted for under the U.S. Department of the Interior’s (Interior) coal, oil, and natural gas leasing programs. This results in fossil fuel production on public lands imposing significant social costs. Interior’s leasing programs have never been tailored to meet any past or present climate change goals, despite their significant contribution to domestic greenhouse gas emissions.