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Sierra Club, Iowa Chapter v. LaHood

Filing Date: 2011
Case Categories:
  • Federal Statutory Claims
    • NEPA
Principal Laws:
National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA)
Description: Challenge to highway extension.
  • Sierra Club, Iowa Chapter v. LaHood
    Docket number(s): 4:11-cv-00258
    Court/Admin Entity: S.D. Iowa
    Case Documents:
    Filing Date Type File Action Taken Summary
    06/10/2013 Order Download Order issued granting defendants' motion for summary judgment. The court granted defendants’ motion for summary judgment, finding that the agencies had not acted arbitrarily and capriciously in approving an 8.5-mile highway extension southwest of Cedar Rapids, Iowa.  The court was not persuaded by plaintiffs’ arguments that under the Eighth Circuit’s decision in Mid States Coalition for Progress v. Surface Transportation Board, 345 F.3d 520 (8th Cir. 2003), climate change must be considered in an environmental review under NEPA.  Finding that Mid States Coalition for Progress required consideration of impacts on air quality more generally—not climate change specifically—the district court ruled that “there is no requirement that climate change be analyzed, particularly given the speculative nature of such an effect.

© 2022 · Sabin Center for Climate Change Law · U.S. Litigation Chart made in collaboration with Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer LLP

The materials on this website are intended to provide a general summary of the law and do not constitute legal advice. You should consult with counsel to determine applicable legal requirements in a specific fact situation.