Description: Lawsuit challenging the Council on Environmental Quality's amendments of the National Environmental Policy Act regulations for unlawfully limiting NEPA review related to concentrated animal feed operations.
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Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement v. Council on Environmental Quality
Case Documents:
Filing Date Type File Action Taken Summary 07/01/2022 Stipulation Download Federal defendants and plaintiffs filed joint status report and stipulation to stay case for an additional 120 days. 03/08/2022 Order Ordered that case remain stayed until July 5, 2022. 09/23/2020 Complaint Download Complaint filed. New Lawsuit Challenging Amended NEPA Regulations Focused on CAFO Exemptions. Six organizations led by Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement filed a lawsuit in federal court in the District of Columbia challenging the Council on Environmental Quality’s amendments to the NEPA regulations. It is the fifth lawsuit filed challenging the amended regulations; the cases are pending in four district courts. The plaintiffs in this case alleged that the amendments give “yet another free pass” to the concentrated animal feeding operation (CAFO) industry by restricting NEPA review of federal funding for the CAFO industry. The complaint alleged that CAFOs and the slaughterhouses they supply “cause and exacerbate climate change and harm rural community and economic health, drinking water quality and quantity, air quality, endangered species, the confined animals themselves, and other aspects of the human environment.”