Description: Challenge to 121 oil and gas leases in and around the Uinta Basin in northwestern Colorado and northeastern Utah.
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Rocky Mountain Wild v. Haaland
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Rocky Mountain Wild v. Bernhardt
Case Documents:
Filing Date Type File Action Taken Summary 09/28/2021 Opinion and Order Download Decision remanded back to the BLM for further consideration consistent with the court's findings. Federal Court Required BLM to Undertake Additional Review for Oil and Gas Lease Sales in Colorado. The federal district court for the District of Colorado found that the U.S. Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM’s) 2018 lease sales in and around the Uinta Basin in northwestern Colorado did not comply with the National Environmental Policy Act and the Administrative Procedure Act. The court remanded to BLM without vacating the leases. The court found that BLM should have considered air modeling that became available before it made the 2018 decision and that BLM failed to consider whether the discovery of wilderness character in certain lands warranted a change in management priorities. The court did not address the complaint’s climate change-related allegations. 06/05/2019 Complaint Amended complaint filed. 05/29/2019 Opinion and Order Download Motion to sever and transfer granted in part and denied in part. 09/27/2018 Complaint Download Complaint filed. Conservation Groups Challenged Oil and Gas Lease Sales in Colorado and Utah. Four conservation groups filed a lawsuit in federal court in Colorado challenging 121 oil and gas leases covering 117,720.59 acres in and around the Uinta Basin in northwestern Colorado and northeastern Utah. The plaintiffs asserted that the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) violated the Federal Land Policy and Management Act, the National Environmental Policy Act, and the Administrative Procedure Act. The complaint alleged that additional oil and gas development would further impair air quality and adversely affect Dinosaur National Monument and also asserted that greenhouse gas emissions from oil and gas development threatened public health and the environment. With respect to climate change, the complaint alleged a failure by BLM to take a hard look at cumulative climate impacts “in conjunction with other past, present, and future lease sales in the Uinta Basin.”