Description: Challenge to federal approvals of underground coal mine expansion.
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High Country Conservation Advocates v. U.S. Forest Service
Case Documents:
Filing Date Type File Action Taken Summary 10/29/2020 Order Download Emergency motion for injunction pending appeal granted. Tenth Circuit Ordered Coal Company to Stop Preparation for Mining in Colorado Roadless Area. The Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals granted environmental groups’ emergency motion for an injunction barring a coal company “from imminently bulldozing additional drilling pads” and “drilling methane ventilation boreholes in preparation for coal mining in the Sunset Roadless Area” in Colorado. The Tenth Circuit ordered the injunction to remain in place pending consideration of the environmental groups’ appeal of a district court order that declined to vacate mining lease modifications that authorized road construction in the Sunset Roadless Area. Although the Tenth Circuit vacated an exception to the Colorado Roadless Rule in March 2020, the district court concluded that it could not enjoin the coal companies’ activities because all challenges to the mining lease modifications had been resolved in the federal defendants’ favor. 10/16/2020 Opposition Download Opposition filed by federal appellees to plaintiffs' emergency motion for injunction pending appeal. 10/07/2020 Order Download Temporary injunction entered pending further order of the court. To facilitate its consideration of the plaintiffs-appellants' emergency motion for an injunction pending appeal of the district court declining to enjoin the coal company from road-building activities, the Tenth Circuit on October 7 entered a temporary injunction enjoining bulldozing additional drilling pads, drilling methane ventilation boreholes, and engaging in further surface disturbance in preparation for coal mining in the Sunset Roadless Area. 10/05/2020 Motion Download Emergency motion for injunction pending appeal filed by appellants. -
High Country Conservation Advocates v. U.S. Forest Service
Case Documents:
Filing Date Type File Action Taken Summary 10/15/2020 Order Download Plaintiffs' motion for injunction pending appeal denied without prejudice as moot. 10/14/2020 Reply Download Reply filed by plaintiffs in support of motion for injunction pending appeal. 10/08/2020 Opposition Download Opposition filed by federal respondents to petitioners' motion for injunction pending appeal. 10/08/2020 Opposition Download Opposition filed by Mountain Coal Company to plaintiffs' motion for an injunction pending appeal. 10/05/2020 Motion Download Motion for injunction pending appeal filed by plaintiffs. 10/02/2020 Order Download Plaintiffs' emergency motion to enforce remedy denied. District Court Declined to Enjoin Coal Company’s Road-Building Activities in Colorado. The federal district court for the District of Colorado declined to vacate mining lease modifications that authorized a coal company to undertake road construction in the Sunset Roadless Area in Colorado. The U.S. Forest Service adopted the North Fork Exception to the Colorado Roadless Rule in 2016, allowing for road construction related to coal mining in the Sunset Roadless Area. In March 2020, the Tenth Circuit vacated the North Fork Exception due to the arbitrary and capricious exclusion of an alternative in the supplemental final environmental impact statement (SFEIS) for the Exception. The Tenth Circuit rejected, however, an argument that the U.S. Bureau of Land Management’s SFEIS for the lease modifications failed to consider a “Methane Flaring Alternative.” The district court concluded that although the Tenth Circuit vacated the North Fork Exception, the appellate court had not expressly or impliedly directed the district court to vacate the lease modifications. The district court further concluded that it could not enjoin the coal company from conducting surface-disturbing activities in the North Fork Exception area because all of the plaintiffs’ challenges to the lease modifications had been resolved in favor of the federal agency defendants and the plaintiffs’ assertions that the coal company’s activities violated the Roadless Rule appeared to raise “an entirely new claim” targeted not at the agencies but at the coal company. 09/24/2020 Reply Download Reply filed by plaintiffs in support of motion to expedite consideration of plaintiffs' emergency motion to enforce remedy. 09/22/2020 Response Download Response filed by Mountain Coal Company to plaintiffs' motion to expedite consideration of emergency motion to enforce remedy. 09/22/2020 Response Download Response filed by federal respondents to petitioners' motion to expedite consideration. 09/18/2020 Motion Download Motion filed by plaintiffs to expedite consideration of their emergency motion to enforce remedy. 07/01/2020 Reply Download Reply filed by plaintiffs in support of emergency motion to enforce remedy. 06/23/2020 Opposition Download Opposition filed by Mountain Coal Company to plaintiffs' emergency motion to enforce remedy. On June 23, 2020, the defendant-intervenor responded that after reviewing the Tenth Circuit decision, it had concluded that it had the right to continue roadbuilding pursuant to a separate exception in the Colorado Roadless Rule that allows roadbuilding when necessary to exercise statutory rights (in this case, rights under the Mineral Leasing Act). 06/22/2020 Opposition Download Opposition filed by federal respondents to emergency motion to enforce remedy. The federal defendants said the environmental groups’ motion should be denied because the activities at issue took place before the Roadless Rule exception was actually vacated and because the requested relief went beyond the Tenth Circuit mandate. 06/15/2020 Order Download Final judgment vacated, North Fork Exception vacated, and response to emergency motion ordered. The federal district court for the District of Colorado formally vacated a Colorado Roadless Rule exception for the North Fork Coal Mining Area after the Tenth Circuit ruled that the U.S. Forest Service should have considered an alternative proposed by the plaintiff environmental groups. The court also directed the defendants and defendant-intervenor to respond to the plaintiffs’ emergency motion to enforce the remedy. 06/12/2020 Motion Download Emergency motion filed by plaintiffs to enforce remedy. In an emergency motion to enjoin the roadbuilding activity, the plaintiffs contended that the defendant-intervenor was illegally bulldozing in the Sunset Roadless Area despite the Tenth Circuit’s ruling, “apparently relying on the fact that this Court had yet to take the non-discretionary step of formally entering the vacatur order.” 08/10/2018 Order Download Agencies' decisions affirmed. Colorado Federal Court Upheld New Environmental Impact Statements Related to Coal Mine Expansion. Almost four years after a Colorado federal court vacated federal actions authorizing expansion of an underground coal mine in Colorado because the defendants had failed to adequately consider greenhouse gas impacts, the court rejected challenges to the new supplemental environmental impact reviews conducted by the federal government. The supplemental environmental impact statements (SEISs) addressed an exception to the Colorado Roadless Rule that allowed road construction related to coal mining on previously protected land in the Sunset Roadless Area (the “North Fork Exception”) and lease modifications adding new lands to an existing coal mine. The court rejected the plaintiffs’ contentions that the defendants improperly refused to consider an alternative to the North Fork Exception that protected a particular roadless area and an alternative to the lease modifications requiring methane flaring, which would have reduced greenhouse gas emissions. The court also rejected arguments that the defendants failed to adequately disclose climate change impacts. First, the court found that the defendants had properly considered and provided the basis for its conclusions regarding the effects on demand for electricity of increased supply of a particular type of coal. Second, the court rejected the contention that the SEIS for the lease modifications should have included an updated social cost of carbon analysis reflecting repeal of the Clean Power Plan. The plaintiffs unsuccessfully argued that an updated SEIS was required since EPA proposed to repeal the Clean Power Plan after preparation of the SEIS for the North Fork Exception (on which the SEIS for the lease modifications relied) but prior to the finalization of the lease modifications. 04/19/2018 Opposition Download Opposition filed by federal defendants to plaintiffs' opening brief. 12/15/2017 Complaint Download Complaint filed. Conservation Groups Filed New Lawsuit Challenging Federal Approvals of Coal Mine’s Expansion. On December 15, 2017, five conservation groups filed a complaint in the federal district court for the District of Colorado alleging that the U.S. Forest Service and BLM violated NEPA when they issued approvals authorizing expansion of an underground coal mine in the Sunset Roadless Area in Colorado. In 2014, a Colorado federal court vacated earlier approvals of the mine’s expansion on the ground that the agencies had failed to take a hard look at greenhouse gas impacts. In the December 2017 complaint, the conservation groups said that, “despite having the benefit of a second opportunity to fully account for the mine expansions’ harms, the agencies have, among other errors, again underestimated or obscured the climate pollution impacts of the expansion while improperly boosting the purported economic benefits.” The groups alleged the following NEPA violations related to the agencies’ assessment of greenhouse gas impacts: failure to acknowledge and account for the environmental impacts of the increased demand for coal that the mine’s expansion would induce; failure to disclose climate impacts using scientifically valid and available tools such as the social cost of carbon or to provide an explanation for why such an approach was not appropriate (as required by the 2014 decision); and failure to consider a reasonable alternative aimed at mitigating methane pollution. -
High Country Conservation Advocates v. U.S. Forest Service
Case Documents:
Filing Date Type File Action Taken Summary 03/02/2020 Opinion Download District court's judgment vacated and case remanded for entry of order vacating the Roadless Rule exception. In Colorado Coal Lease Case, Tenth Circuit Vacated Roadless Rule Exception but Upheld Forest Service and BLM Decision to Eliminate Methane Flaring Alternative. The Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with a district court that the U.S. Forest Service and U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) did not have to conduct a detailed study of a “Methane Flaring Alternative” in an environmental impact statement (EIS) for coal lease modifications. The Tenth Circuit concluded that the agencies had taken a sufficiently hard look at the alternative, given the lack of information available at the time concerning flaring’s feasibility and impacts and given uncertainty regarding whether the Mine Safety and Health Administration would approve methane flaring at an active coal mine. But the appellate court held that in its EIS for a Colorado Roadless Rule exception, the Forest Service arbitrarily and capriciously excluded an alternative that would foreclose coal mining in one area where there were no active mines. The court therefore vacated the entire exception. 04/18/2019 Reply Download Reply brief filed by appellants High Country Conservation Advocates et al. 03/14/2019 Brief Download Brief filed by intervenor-appellee. 03/14/2019 Brief Download Answering brief filed by federal appellees. 11/21/2018 Brief Download Opening brief filed by appellants High Country Conservation Advocates et al.