Description: Challenge to BLM’s review of oil and gas leases, including for failure to discuss greenhouse gas impacts.
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Amigos Bravos v. United States Bureau of Land Management
Case Documents:
Filing Date Type File Action Taken Summary 08/03/2011 Memorandum Opinion and Order Download Motion to dismiss granted. BLM moved to dismiss on standing grounds. The district court granted the motion, holding that plaintiffs failed to demonstrate that their members suffered any injury in fact given that they produced no scientific evidence concerning statements in members’ declarations that climate change would lead to less water, decreased biodiversity, siltier rivers, and more forest fires. Thus, these statements were excluded as inadmissible hearsay. The court further held that even it were to accept such statements, none of the alleged effects of climate change created a risk of imminent environmental harm. In addition, the court held that none of the plaintiffs demonstrated that their members used the lands that would be subject to the leases. Finally, the court held that plaintiffs also failed to demonstrate causation concerning these alleged effects and the granting of the leases. 02/09/2010 Memorandum Opinion and Order Download Motion to dismiss denied. 01/21/2009 Complaint Complaint filed. Plaintiffs, represented by the Western Environmental Law Center, filed suit in New Mexico federal court alleging that a 2008 grant by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) of 92 oil and gas leases in New Mexico violated federal law by failing to address greenhouse gas emissions. The complaint also alleged that BLM failed to adopt policies designed to make drilling more efficient. Plaintiffs alleged that BLM’s grants of the leases were improper under the Federal Land Policy and Management Act, the Mineral Leasing Act, the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), and a 2001 order by the Department of the Interior. Plaintiffs based their standing to sue on the alleged impairment of their use and enjoyment of lands affected by the leases.