Earlier this week, U.S. District Judge Brian Morris halted a slew of coal leases in the so-called Powder River Basin (PRB) district of southern Montana and north-central Wyoming. See Western Org. of Resource Councils v. U.S. Bureau of Land Management, 2018 WL 1456624 (D. Mont.2018). PRB coal, for those in the know, is synonymous with […]
Read moreDAPL: The Winter of Trump’s Environmental Agenda?
Jamison Colburn Army Corps of Engineers, FONSI, judicial relief, pipelines DAPL, pipelines, risk, Standing Rock
The world waits as the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals weighs the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s (SRST) appeal in their case opposing the Army Corps of Engineers’ approval of the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) crossing Lake Oahe. In the end, the argument on appeal comes down to a NEPA claim: that the Corps should’ve prepared […]
Read more*Good* News for Cape Wind? NEPA Compliance Comes in Steps
Jamison Colburn BOEM, climate change, judicial relief, offshore wind cape wind, climate change, NEPA, risk
Cape Wind—America’s poster child for NIMBY litigation run amok—just emerged from a D.C. Circuit panel’s review with a telling result. Fast on the heels of a Ninth Circuit holding setting aside a proposed windfarm’s NEPA document for insufficient data, the D.C. Circuit announced on Tuesday that it was setting aside the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) […]
Read moreBetween A Dentist, His Front Yard, and the TVA?
On Tuesday, United States District Judge Kevin H. Sharp, U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee, ordered, well, the unthinkable. The judge granted a temporary restraining order—akin to a preliminary injunction—against the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) because TVA planned to remove a few trees (see above) from a dentist’s front yard. TVA holds […]
Read moreNEPA, Breaching Dams, and the Injunction Standard in Federal Court
Jamison Colburn dams & salmon, endangered species, judicial relief 2014 BiOp, FCRPS, risk, Snake River
A first post described the NEPA violation Judge Simon found last week: the failure to prepare an EIS for the adoption of the 2014 BiOp along with its 73[!] “reasonable and prudent alternatives.” This post raises the question the judge presented to the parties on May 4th: what relief ought to be granted for this […]
Read moreSlash and (Don’t) Burn: When Fuels Are Left For Dead
Jamison Colburn CATX, judicial relief, USFS Forest Service, hazardous fuel reduction, HFRA, NEPA relief, risk
We first brought the litigation over a hazardous fuel reduction project in Tahoe National Forest to light last August. As our story pointed out, the Forest Service had undertaken a series of mechanical gather-and-burn actions in a sensitive part of the Forest. A life-long user of that forest and conservation biologist, Dennis Murphy, sued challenging (among […]
Read moreFDA Take Note: Approval of Ractopamine Use in Animal Ag *Is* a NEPA Issue
Ractopamine hydrochloride. Practically rolls off the tongue. And although its use is banned in most countries—including Russia and China—it’s been approved for use here in the States since 1999. Animal “finishing” operations feed it to pigs, cows and turkeys whose fat content and muscle growth is a major money issue. Given the widespread knowledge of […]
Read moreMission Impossible: When the Pressure to Do Something Exceeds the Knowledge of How to Do it Right
Jamison Colburn action agencies, endangered species, judicial relief categorical exclusion, Forest Service, fuel treatment, HFRA, risk, South Lake Tahoe, wildfire
The Healthy Forests Restoration Act (HFRA) is a 2003 statute epitomizing the state of the art, such as it is, in environmental legislation. HFRA uses lofty terms—restoration of our federal forests to “health”—and vests meager tools in the administrators tasked with pursuing its impossible goals. In reality, the U.S. Forest Service and other land managing […]
Read moreThe “Full and Fair” Discussion of Impacts Includes a Realistic Assessment of Future Compliance
As student work, the recent Yale Law Journal note “A ‘Full and Fair’ Discussion of Environmental Impacts in NEPA EISs: The Case for Addressing the Impact of Substantive Regulatory Regimes” by Sarah Langberg is exemplary. The piece examines a niggling little issue that has received far too little attention in NEPA practice with the methodical […]
Read moreWhen Connectivity Met Toxicity: Hard Questions in Restoration II
Jamison Colburn dredge and fill, judicial relief dam removal, nutrient pollution, risk, toxic algal blooms
Restorative work that raises hard questions of one environmental good versus another is quickly becoming a staple of NEPA practice. This story brought you the question of fire suppression’s legacy and restoring a forest to its fire-adapted baselines versus currently serviceable lynx habitat and the support of a listed (threatened) species. Now comes the Ballville […]
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