Description: Challenge to oil and gas lease sale in Nevada.
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Center for Biological Diversity v. U.S. Bureau of Land Management
Case Documents:
Filing Date Type File Action Taken Summary 08/15/2019 Order Download Plaintiffs' motion for partial reconsideration granted, plaintiff's motion for summary judgment denied, and defendants' cross-motion for summary judgment granted. Nevada Federal Court Again Found that BLM’s Analysis of Oil and Gas Lease Impacts Was Sufficient. The federal district court for the District of Nevada denied environmental groups’ request for partial reconsideration of its decision that BLM had satisfied its National Environmental Policy Act obligations in connection with issuance of oil and gas leases for approximately 198,000 acres of land. Although the court found that its previous order was based on an incorrect interpretation of certain BLM regulations and Ninth Circuit case law, the court nonetheless agreed with BLM that an environmental impact statement was not required because BLM had sufficiently analyzed the impacts of oil and gas development in its environmental assessment. 01/15/2019 Order Download Plaintiffs' motion for summary judgment denied and BLM's cross-motion for summary judgment granted. Nevada Federal Court Rejected NEPA Challenge to Oil and Gas Leases. The federal district court for the District of Nevada granted summary judgment to the federal defendants in Center for Biological Diversity and Sierra Club’s challenge to the U.S. Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM’s) leasing of approximately 198,000 acres of land in the Battle Mountain District in northern Nevada. The court found that BLM had satisfied the “hard look” standard of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) by analyzing in “general terms” what could happen—including climate change and greenhouse gas impacts—if lessees drilled for oil and gas. The court also found that BLM adequately considered the impacts of fracking, had not improperly relied on “stale data,” and had properly analyzed mitigation measures to protect mule deer and pronghorn antelope, and that its mitigation measures to protect wetlands were not arbitrary and capricious. In addition, the court upheld BLM’s decisions not to prepare an environmental impact statement (EIS) and to issue a Determination of NEPA Adequacy instead of an EIS or environmental assessment. 09/12/2018 Reply Download Plaintiffs filed reply in support of motion for summary judgment and response in opposition to defendants' cross-motion for summary judgment. 08/23/2018 Motion for Summary Judgment Download Motion for summary judgment and opposition to plaintiffs' motion for summary judgment filed by defendants. 06/22/2018 Motion for Summary Judgment Download Motion for summary judgment filed by plaintiffs. 11/20/2017 Complaint Download First amended complaint filed. 09/11/2017 Complaint Download Complaint filed. Lawsuit Filed in Nevada Federal Court Alleging Inadequate Environmental Review for Oil and Gas Lease Sale. Center for Biological Diversity and Sierra Club filed a lawsuit in the federal district court for the District of Nevada seeking to overturn the U.S. Bureau of Land Management's (BLM’s) oil and gas lease sale for 195,732 acres of federal estate. The plaintiffs alleged that the environmental assessment on which BLM relied contained inadequate analysis of many of the environmental impacts of oil and gas development, including greenhouse gas emissions and climate change. They contended that BLM minimized impacts by determining that few environmental impacts resulted from the lease sale stage and that impacts would be avoided at future stages of review.