Description: Challenge to Clean Water Act permit for expansion of crude oil export terminal in Texas.
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Indigenous Peoples of the Coastal Bend v. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
Case Documents:
Filing Date Type File Action Taken Summary 07/27/2023 Memorandum Opinion and Order Download Federal defendants' and Enbridge's motions for summary judgment granted. Texas Federal Court Rejected Environmental Challenge to Expansion of Crude Export Terminal. The federal district court for the Southern District of Texas granted summary judgment to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the owner of a crude export terminal on the Gulf Coast in a lawsuit challenging the Corps’ issuance of an amended permit to facilitate expansion of the terminal. The court rejected the claims by two Tribes and a local association that the Corps violated NEPA and the Clean Water Act, including by failing to analyze climate change and its impacts. The court first declined to permit extra-record evidence, including a 2018 climate assessment from the U.S. Global Change Research Program, of which the plaintiffs asked the court to take judicial notice for purposes of background information. On the merits of the plaintiffs’ argument regarding consideration of climate change, the court agreed with the defendants that the Corps did not have to consider the terminal’s downstream operational effects, but instead could limits its analysis to the specific activity requiring a Corps permit. Based on this scope of impacts, the court found that the Corps satisfied NEPA’s hard look standard when it considered the greenhouse gas emissions from construction activities and found them to be minimal. The court also rejected the plaintiffs’ argument that the Corps’ public interest review overlooked climate change in violation of the Clean Water Act. The Corps found that the review was well reasoned and met Clean Water Act requirements. 08/22/2022 Response Download Plaintiffs filed response to Enbridge Ingleside Oil Terminal, LLC's cross-motion for summary judgment. 08/22/2022 Response Download Plaintiffs filed response to federal defendants' cross-motion for summary judgment. 07/22/2022 Motion for Summary Judgment Download Enbridge Ingleside Oil Terminal, LLC filed combined opposition to plaintiffs' motion for summary judgment and cross-motion for summary judgment. 07/22/2022 Motion for Summary Judgment Download Federal defendants filed combined opposition to plaintiffs' motion for summary judgment and cross-motion for summary judgment. 07/22/2022 Opposition Download Federal defendants filed combined opposition to plaintiffs' motion for summary judgment and cross-motion for summary judgment. 07/22/2022 Opposition Download Enbridge Ingleside Oil Terminal, LLC filed combined opposition to plaintiffs' motion for summary judgment and cross-motion for summary judgment. 06/09/2022 Motion for Summary Judgment Download Motion for summary judgment filed by plaintiffs. 06/09/2022 Motion for Summary Judgment Download Plaintiffs filed motion for summary judgment. 08/24/2021 Motion Download Motion for preliminary injunction filed by plaintiffs. 08/03/2021 Complaint Download Complaint filed. Tribe and Nonprofit Groups Challenged Corps of Engineers Permit for Oil Export Terminal Expansion Project in Texas. The Karankawa Kadla Tribe of the Texas Gulf Coast and two nonprofit organizations filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in the federal district court for the Southern District of Texas challenging issuance of a Clean Water Act Section 404 permit for expansion of the Moda Ingleside Energy Center, a crude oil export terminal in the Corpus Christi Ship Channel. The plaintiffs asserted violations of the Clean Water Act, NEPA, and the Administrative Procedure Act, including a failure to consider the expansion’s contribution to climate change.